We always discuss how Rudolph led Santa’s sleigh that one
foggy night, but we never discuss why his nose glows red in the first place! A
biologist, Steve Farber, decided to take a look into this fictional character
to see why his nose may have glowed red. The answer he came up with is a
one-in-a-million event, slightly more likely than seeing a flying reindeer, but
the hypothesis makes complete sense.
So, here’s
how! There are other creatures that glow with color through bioluminescence or
fluorescence, such as jellyfish, sea anemones, and zebrafish, if any genetic
material from one of these organisms found a way into Rudolph’s DNA – BOOM, he
too can now glow with color. Now the question is, how did this fluoresce end up
in his DNA? – his mother! While she was pregnant she may have come upon
Anthozoan coral, a red species found in shallow tropical waters (why was she in
the water? The world may never know) which she cut herself on. The coral DNA
may have entered her bloodstream, and then traveled from her blood into a
virus-like genetic element that transferred it into the egg cell that then
formed Rudolph. This entire process is called horizontal gene transfer! With
Rudolph, instead of being transferred into his skin, the gene was expressed in
his nasal epithelial cells – his nose, which caused it to glow red versus no
glow at all. Now, we know why Rudolph might have had a red glowing nose to help
Santa guide his sleigh and no one else!
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171205142819.htm
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/group/corals/
Must have been during their destination wedding. If so, it is crazy that something similar to our simple lab could be done, in a much more complex way, in nature, even if the chances are so small. I think everyone just assumed it was just as possible as flying reindeer.
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ReplyDeleteI love this theory because of the holiday season, but why would it target of the nose specifically, it must have attached to a gene close to a nose that controls the morphology or size. Also what if it was a bacterial infection gone unchecked and the bacteria just happened to have a red florescent protein? That would make Rudolph's parents pretty negligent, do they have CPS for Reindeer?
ReplyDeleteOMG! The heading of this post caught my attention because I love Rudolf. I think this is a great post because it's so close to Christmas and I never thought a scientist would come up with a theory on a fictional character. His theory makes a lot of sense as to why Rudolf would have a red nose, but I would like to know more of this "study"/theory. It should continue on to say why his mother was in the water in the first place and maybe test the theories on animals similar to reindeer. HAHA! I think it was definitely interesting to read and a great theory but I feel that there is so much missing.
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