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The Milk River of theplatypusmay contain a protein that can press drug - resistant bacteria .
Now , a new analysis of that protein reveals that its configuration is as bizarre as the shape of the brute that egest it . The protein has a never - before - seen protein plication , now dubbed the " Shirley Temple " thanks to its whorl - similar structure , accord to researchers from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization ( CSIRO ) and Deakin University in Australia .
The platypus feeds its young with milk excreted from its belly.
" Platypuses are such weird animalsthat it would make mother wit for them to have weird biochemistry , " study investigator Janet Newman of CSIRO articulate in a statement .
Platypuses are monotremes , or eggs - laying mammalian . They breastfeed their young , but they do n’t have tit or nipples . Instead , they " perspire " Milk River from glands on their belly . Baby platypuses gather around their resupine mother , swish up puddles of Milk River from her cutis .
Many type of mammal milk have antibacterial property , accord to a 2014 paperin the journal Genome Biology and Evolution . Platypus milk may be particularly protective , though , because child platypuses are expose to many pathogen throughout their infancy . Their Milk River sits on their mothers ' exposed skin , and they populate in microbe - rich burrows as shortly as they cover . [ Mammal Milk : How the Fat Measures Up ( Infographic ) ]
Scientists have discovered a unique structure in a platypus milk protein that forms a 3D fold similar to a ringlet.
Newman and her colleagues retroflex an unnamed protein from platypus milk in a laboratory and then studied its construction , discovering the unique curlicue shape . They report their findings March 14 in the diary Structural Biology Communications .
" Although we ’ve key out this extremely strange protein as only existing in monotremes , this discovery increases our cognition of protein structure in cosmopolitan , and will go on to inform other drug discovery oeuvre done at the center [ CSIRO ] , " Newman say .
Original article onLive scientific discipline .
