A research team has found the first actual “sensor mechanism” that allows a living cell detect an electric field (stock image). Credit: © Sergey Nivens / Fotolia
A variety of animals are able to sense and react to electric fields, and living human cells will move along an electric field, eg in wound healing. Now researchers have found the first actual ‘sensor mechanism’ that allows a living cell detect an electric field.
“We believe there are several types of sensing mechanisms, and none of them are known. We now provide experimental evidence to suggest one which has not been even hypothesized before, a 2-molecule sensing mechanism,” Zhao said.
Zhao and colleagues have been studying these “electric senses” in cells from both larger animals (fish skin cells, human cell lines) and in the so...
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