Reference no: EM133418133

Question: You're a college student who is native to Australia. It's a lovely morning, so you decide to take your dog, Mowgli, for a walk along a beach near your house before your BIOS 110 lecture. Halfway during your walk, Mowgli runs ahead to have a dip in the water. However, she isn't in there for long before you hear her bark in distress. As you run towards her to help you notice a blue-ringed octopus (image above for reference) in the sand before it is picked up by the incoming tide. You figure that Mowgli didn't see it and accidentally stepped on it when running into the water.

Unfortunately, after quickly getting her into the car you notice that Mowgli isn't her peppy self. You think she was stung by the octopus. She starts whimpering and begins to show signs of breathing difficulty. You race over to your vet, but given muscle weakness that Mowgli has developed, you have to carry her inside. After you explain what happened, the vet expresses how happy he is that you got her to him so quickly. When they bite, a blue-ringed octopus injects a toxin called tetrodotoxin which goes on is to block Na+ voltage gated channels. The doctor ultimately whisks Mowgli away to tend to her health. Given you have the mind of a true biologist, you attempt to understand how the tetrodotoxin impacts Mowgli's normal nervous system physiology.

Of the following options, choose the one that would help to properly match the above scenario. Reject all the rest. For full points you must also provide an explanation for each case. Defend the correct choice with adequate justification. For those that are false, explain why they are incorrect.

Accept/Reject: Mowgli is experiencing muscle weakness because by blocking Na+ voltage gated channels, threshold cannot be met.
Accept/Reject: The tetrodotoxin prevents the rush of Na+ out of the neuron that occurs during depolarization.
Accept/Reject: Mowgli's autonomic motor neurons innervating skeletal muscles aren't firing, causing more neurotransmitter than normal to be released from axon terminal end.
Accept/Reject: By blocking voltage gated Na+ channels, Mowgli's neurons cannot become any more positive than threshold, which is inhibiting action potentials from firing along motor neurons, resulting in her weakness.
Accept/Reject: The tetrodotoxin prevents voluntary motor signals originating in the parietal lobe from reaching the Mowgli's muscle tissue.