Hunger, Starvation May Make Spiders Lose Good Vision; Findings Could Shed Light on How Nutrition Impacts Macular Degeneration

While hunger is known to lead to physical and mental impacts, for spiders, hunger leads to deterioration of their vision.

Vision Degeneration

This was observed in a recent study published in Vision Research.

According to Science Alert, the vision loss that was observed is not very different from human AMD, or age-related macular degeneration. Hence, by knowing more about this phenomenon, specialists might be capable of coming up with better AMD treatments.

Elke Buschbeck, a professor from the University of Cincinnati's College of Arts and Sciences, and co-authors looked into photoreceptors of bold jumping spider eyes. According to Science Daily, these small predators can be found throughout North America and primarily depend on their vision in order to catch prey.

They observed that the underfed spiders started losing the photoreceptors that give them good vision. This was quite an unprecedented discovery.

The researchers were able to observe this as they looked into the eyes of these creatures using a custom-made ophthalmoscope in the lab. This equipment is capable of taking retina shots of spiders and other insects.

They were able to find dark spots in some photoreceptors. Buschbeck notes that, at a glance, it is clear that some of these photoreceptors died.

However, the researchers wondered if these photoreceptors were indeed degenerating or if they were bleached by experiment procedures. Shubham Rathore, a doctoral student from the university, utilized electron microscopy to verify the degeneration of the cells.

Could Hunger, Starvation, or Nutrition Be the Culprit?

To test this, John Goté and Miranda Brafford, who are both graduates from the university, studied two spider groups. One group had unrestricted feeding while the other's portions were cut into half.

The underfed spiders exhibited more photoreceptor loss, most particularly in the retina.

Buschbeck notes that this is the "functional equivalent" of the human eye's macula.

Buschbeck also adds that photoreceptors have a high energy cost. Keeping up with their energy demands is quite difficult. Hence, being nutrition-deprived may lead to system failure.

Interestingly, macular degeneration among humans also exhibits links to certain metabolic processes and energy difficulties.

Premature Conclusions

Both Buschbeck and Rathore would like to examine if the degeneration starts at the surrounding support tissues and see which specific nutrients support good vision. However, Annette Stowasser, the study's senior author and an assistant professor from the College of Arts and Sciences, notes that drawing links between people and spiders would be a premature move.

Nevertheless, Nathan Morehouse, a biologist from the University, explains that it would be a wild breakthrough for human AMD treatments if it were inspired by such a spider study.

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