Scientists have discovered how parts of organ grow differently when body size changes.
The study entitled “Different scaling within an insect compounding eye” publish today (Wednesday, 16 March 2016) revels, how different part of a single organ in the body can changes sizes at different rates.
‘When the size of the body changes, the different region and cell within the organs respond differently.’
The study conducted at by researchers at the University of Sussex. Scientists of Sussex measured the eye surface of 66 small and large wood ants and created eye “heat maps”.
Scientists discovered that when the ants’ body sizes changed, different regions within their eyes increased / decreased in size at different rates.
Dr Jeremy Niven, of the University Sussex said, “Scientist have been trying to understand how organs reach the right size in our bodies since the beginning of the last century.
“Scaling within organ still remains poorly understood-but our result show for the first time that when the size of our bodies change, the different region and cells within our organs respond in more diverse ways than previously thought.”
Craig Perl, the University of Sussex PhD student who worked on the study said, “Our work provides the foundation for future investigation into the role of scaling in organ evolution. Many species show substantial variation in organ size and shape that could be produced by regional difference in scaling.”
“It is essential that we continue to try to understand how organ works and interact with one another so we can help animal remain healthy. If an organ, or the cells within it are too small or too big, this could have major consequences for an animal’s health.”
Source: Eurekalert
