That's the reason why Nemo has never been stung by the anemone

KOMPAS.com – The popularity of clownfish has increased since the premiere of Finding Nemo 15 years ago. The film shows that the little orange likes to hide and lives in a sea anemone.

Anemon himself is a marine animal of the clbad anthozoaires. It has hundreds of venomous tentacles that can sting predators, but not for Nemo.

Since then, many people have wondered why clownfish can coexist with anemones and are not affected by the bite of their tentacles.

The issue was finally resolved by scientists from Georgia. According to them, clown fish protect themselves from bites when they rub their bodies with the tentacles of the anemone.

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Study published in the journal Coral reefs and published Friday (02/11/2018) revealed that this method can modify the microbial structure of clownfish and preserve it.

"Clownfish and anemones are examples of the perfect symbiosis of mutualism, and both have microbes that both like to eat mucus," said Frank Stewart, professor at the Georgia Tech School of Biological Sciences. . Science DailyOn Wednesday (28/11/2018).

Research

Clown fish and anemones exchange mucus when the clownfish rubs the body against the anemone.

To badyze what really happened, Stewart's team brought clownfish and anemones, then badyzed the microbes contained in the mucus that covered the clown fish while they lived in anemones and no.

"Microbiomes change, when they are in contact with anemones, the two bacteria that we have followed are multiplying," said Zoe Pratte, researcher at Stewart's lab, who joined the team. # 39; study.

"In addition, the microbial collection is very different between clownfish living with anemones and not," said Stewart.

For eight weeks, Stewart and his team placed 12 clown fish in six aquariums to clean the mucus from their bodies and identify the microbes by gene sequencing.

Evolution of the clown fish

In addition to research conducted by Georgian experts, Australian scientists have also examined this unique symbiosis and discovered that the clownfish had evolved for 60 million years to resist the bite of anemones and could coexist with it.

As published Kompas.idOn Thursday (29.11.2018), the results of the study were published in a report entitled "Predation encouraging the repeated convergence of interspecies mutualism" and published in the newspaper Letters of ecology.

The study was conducted by a team of scientists from the University of Queensland and the Australian University Deakin.

William Feeney, a researcher at the University of Queensland, said the study aimed to understand the origins of the relationship between anemones and clownfish.

Clownfish live in and around anemones, helping them to repel their predators and provide them with food. Instead, the anemone provides protection against tentacles.

"Clown fish have evolved to resist the bite of anemones, which have finally become a very beneficial relationship for both species," Feeney said.

Feeney said the study had helped explain how natural selection had formed a global pattern of biodiversity.

"We test and confirm very basic and intuitive – but logically difficult – ideas in evolutionary ecology." In summary, we investigate whether external pressure, such as predators, can explain the repeated evolution of this type of partnership. mutually beneficial, "he explained.

This research combines genetic badysis with field experiments in French Polynesia to better understand the mutualism dynamics of clownfish and anemones.

Also read: What happened when Movie? Finding Nemo? According to reality

Deakin University researcher Rohan Brooker said the team found that clown and anemone mutualism had evolved at least 55 times in the genealogies of 16 fish families over the past 60 million years. years.

"It's much more common than previously thought.More than a quarter of the coral reef fish families have at least one species badociated with anemones," Brooker said.

The results show that the risk of predation has led to this mutualism and that partnerships with anemones mainly benefit the smaller fish.

Overall, this study shows that predation can explain the independent evolution of cooperative behavior among species and that this pattern of evolution can be applied globally.

"If you can not find Nemo, you may have to dig into the tentacles of the anemone," Brooker jokes.