How Electric Fish Became Sources of Acetylcholine Receptor

Abstract

The purpose of this communication is to describe the historical steps by which fish electric organs were eventually determined to be modified motor endplates and therefore a plentiful source of acetylcholine receptor. A brief description of the early history of electric fish concerned with the nature of the discharge will provide the background for studies of the anatomy, embryology, and physiology of electric organs in the nineteenth century that suggested that electric organs were derived from modified muscles. In the twentieth century, transmission between nerve and electric organ was shown to be cholinergic, and because of their size and abundant cholinergic nerve supply, the electric organs of Torpedo and Electrophorus were chosen by biochemists and molecular biologists as possible rich sources of acetylcholine receptor.