Welcome back to my blog! I hope everyone enjoyed their break and are staying safe. For today’s blog post, I am  going to continue  talking  about my favorite species, the Puffer fish, and some of their unique physiology. The Puffer fish is the second most poisonous vertebrate in the world, but is still considered a delicacy  in many parts of the world. So why are puffer fish so poisonous? The puffer fish is very poisonous because almost all Puffer fish contain tetrodotoxin which is a substance that makes them foul tasting when a predator eats them. The tetrodotoxin in puffer fish is a potent neurotoxin that blocks sodium channels. A fun fact about tetrodotoxin is that it can be used in the medical field as and analgesic to treat cancer pains due to its paralytic effects.

Below is a figure of Chemical structure of tetrodotoxin (TTX).

The figure was provided from Lago, Jorge, et al. “Tetrodotoxin, an Extremely Potent Marine Neurotoxin: Distribution, Toxicity, Origin and Therapeutical Uses.” Marine Drugs, MDPI, 19 Oct. 2015, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4626696/.