COURTESY OF THE MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY: Octopus bimaculoides, one of the cephalopods studied.
WOODS HOLE – A new study led by researchers with the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole suggests the path to neural sophistication for “smart” cephalopods may come at the expense of the evolution in their genomic DNA.
Octopi, squid and cuttlefish are known for complex behavior, including instantaneous skin camouflage and even unlocking and escaping from an aquarium tank.
The research conducted builds on a prior discovery that squid edit the coding regions of their RNA at a very high rate, particularly in the nervous system.
In the current study, scientists found that similar levels of RNA editing occurs in three other “smart” cephalopod species and identified tens of thousands of evolutionary conserved RNA recoding site called coleoid.
The scientists also discovered a trade-off between the RNA recoding and genomic evolution.
MBL scientist Joshua Rosenthal says in order to maintain the flexibility to edit RNA, the coleoids have to give up the ability to evolve.
Researchers are currently developing model systems to explore the mechanisms and functional consequences of the prolific RNA editing.
Rosenthal says they want to find out when they turn it on, and under what environmental influences.
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