Scientists from the University of Liverpool have solved the mystery behind how marine mammals can hold their breath for up to an hour.
For a long time now, scientists have been perplexed with how marine mammals are able to hold their breath for up to an hour. Researchers have established that they do so by storing oxygen but were not able to determine how they do it.
However, after conducting a new study, scientists from the University of Liverpool think they may have solved the mystery.
Dr Michael Berenbrink from the University of Liverpool revealed in a press release that the study began with the analyses of myoglobin, an oxygen-storing protein in mammals' muscles. Myoglobin is responsible for the red color of meat and in high concentrations, as in deep -diving marine mammals, makes muscles appear black in color. Scientists have found that when proteins are absorbed and stored in high quantities they tend to stick to one another.
Researchers of the study found that seals and whales have myoglobin with certain "non-stick" properties. This property allows marine mammals to store large quantities of oxygen in their muscles without "clogging them up." While conducting the study, Berenbrink and his team found that this "non-stick" property developed in marine mammals that could dive underwater for long periods of time because the electric charge of their myoglobin was higher.
Dr Scott Mirceta, PhD student on the project, added: "Our study suggests that the increased electrical charge of myoglobin in mammals that have high concentrations of this protein causes electro-repulsion, like similar poles of two magnets. This should prevent the proteins from sticking together and allow much higher concentrations of the oxygen-storing myoglobin in the muscles of these divers."
