Specialized bat tongue is a hemodynamic nectar mop
Specialized bat tongue is a hemodynamic nectar mop
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DOI：
10.1073/pnas.1222726110
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发表时间：
2013-05-28
影响因子：
11.1
通讯作者：
Brainerd, Elizabeth L.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Harper, Cally J.;Swartz, Sharon M.;Brainerd, Elizabeth L.
食蜜的鸟类和蝙蝠已经进化出高度专业化的舌头来采集花蜜。在这里，我们展示了一种采蜜蝙蝠，舌蝇，用动态勃起的乳头收集花蜜。在G. soricina，舌尖上覆盖着长长的丝状乳头，类似于刷子或拖把。在吸食花蜜的过程中，舌尖的血管充血，乳头竖立起来。肿胀和乳头勃起在舌头收缩的过程中持续，花蜜被困在一排排直立的乳头之间，被带进嘴里。舌尖伸长时，总体体积不会增加，这表明肌肉收缩对抗舌头的固定体积（即肌肉静水器）是舌尖伸长的主要原因，而乳头勃起是由血流驱动的水力过程。液压系统嵌入在肌肉静水器中，因此，内在肌肉收缩可以同时增加舌头的长度并将血液置换到舌尖。G. soricina的舌头，以及采蜜的蜜蜂和蜂鸟的舌头，也具有动态的表面，可以作为开发微型手术机器人的有价值的模型，这些机器人既可伸出，又具有高度动态的表面结构。
Nectarivorous birds and bats have evolved highly specialized tongues to gather nectar from flowers. Here, we show that a nectar-feeding bat, Glossophaga soricina, uses dynamic erectile papillae to collect nectar. In G. soricina, the tip of the tongue is covered with long filamentous papillae and resembles a brush or mop. During nectar feeding, blood vessels within the tongue tip become engorged with blood and the papillae become erect. Tumescence and papilla erection persist throughout tongue retraction, and nectar, trapped between the rows of erect papillae, is carried into the mouth. The tongue tip does not increase in overall volume as it elongates, suggesting that muscle contraction against the tongue's fixed volume (i.e., a muscular hydrostat) is primarily responsible for tip elongation, whereas papilla erection is a hydraulic process driven by blood flow. The hydraulic system is embedded within the muscular hydrostat, and, thus, intrinsic muscle contraction may simultaneously increase the length of the tongue and displace blood into the tip. The tongue of G. soricina, together with the tongues of nectar-feeding bees and hummingbirds, which also have dynamic surfaces, could serve as valuable models for developing miniature surgical robots that are both protrusible and have highly dynamic surface configurations.