Why Do We All Have Snot?

we have to put up with it? It turns out that mucus plays a hugely important role in keeping us healthy, and not just us humans, similar mucus helps protect pretty much all other creatures as well. But mucus is a bit of a mystery. Okay. We know that mucus is made up almost entirely of water, along with tiny amounts of hundreds of other compounds, including proteins, fats, and salts. And we know that mammals, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, molluscs,

and some other invertebrates all produce mucus. But a study from twenty twenty two found that many mucus related genes don't share a common ancestor. This is relatively unusual because genes with a similar function often evolve from a common ancestral gene. But just in humans, genes that encode for mucus are members of several families that probably evolved independently. Further study, a team from the University of Buffalo looked

at the saliva of forty nine different species of mammals. Specifically, they were looking at the musins in that saliva, musins being the sort of key ingredient in mucus that makes it slimy because musins tend to be good at forming gels with water, and the research found that in some mammals, new types of musins had evolved from other kinds of

non musin proteins, like fifteen independent times. The lead author of the study, a University of Buffalo PhD student by the name of Peter Pietz, said in a press release, if these musins keep evolving from non musins over and over again in different species at different times, it suggests that there is some sort of adaptive pressure that makes it beneficial. So it seems that evolution loves making slime certainly.

Mucus serves our bodies in lots of different ways, including preventing tissues from drying out and cracking, which would expose them to infection, lubricating the eyes, protecting the stomach lining from acid, removing or trapping foreign substances, thus preventing them from getting into the lungs or the bloodstream, and keeping the bodies trillions of friendly bacterial inhabitants under control. Our

bodies are constantly producing mucus. In fact, the respiratory system alone cranks out more than a liter of it every day, and that's about forty fluid ounces. A lot of it slides down the back of your throat, into your stomach and eventually makes its way out of the body. When you're healthy, you're probably not aware of all the mucus rolling down the back of your throat unless you happen

to speak into microphones for a living. And thank you, by the way, to Tyler and all of the other fabulous producers here at iHeart for editing out my many, many many throat clears in every episode. Anyway, when you're sick, your mucus becomes thicker and stickier as your body ramps up production of it in an attempt to flush out the offending pathogens. And as we said above, humans aren't the only creatures to produce mucus. Other animals do some

amazing things with it. Snails and slugs eat visco elastic mucus that acts as both an adhesive and a lubricant, enabling them to scoop seemingly effortlessly over rough terrain and move vertically up it. All fish are covered in mucus, but parrotfish also spit out little mucus sleeping bags that they encase themselves in every night to protect them from parasites.

Some sea sponges sneeze to clear debris out of their pores, similar to how you might blow your nose, but it takes them between twenty and fifty minutes to complete one sneeze like contraction and cave dwelling birds called swiftlets, use their saliva to build gooey nests that stick to steep

cave walls. The nests are a delicacy in some Chinese cuisines, in which the delicate cup shaped nests, which look a little bit like a pastry shell when they're dried, are boiled down to form a gelatinous soup called appropriately Birds' Nest Soup. A snot still has a lot to teach us. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, there's a lab run by biological engineering professor Katharina Ribbeck that's dedicated to learning how some pathogenic microbes have evolved to slip in through

our mucus barriers. Aribic told Statnews back in twenty eighteen that mucus is the unsown hero that has been taming problematic pathogens for millions of years. She and her team want to figure out how to harness mucus to prevent more infections, especially those caused by bacteria that are resistant

to antibiotics. Today's episode is based on the article the Science Behind Why We All Have snot on how stuffworks dot com, written by Jennifer Walker Journey Brainstuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klaying. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.