2023-06-26 12:15:18
Research reveals an unexpected and astonishing ability in octopuses that allows them to adapt to changes in environmental temperature through adjustments in their RNA that, despite being small, significantly alter the function of various proteins.
Each cell has a finite set of instructions encoded in its DNA. But the life of a being is unpredictable, and when circumstances change, animals need flexibility to adapt. The new study indicates that octopuses and their close evolutionary relatives adapt effectively to environmental challenges by modifying their RNA, an intermediary molecule that carries DNA instructions.
The study is the work of an international team consisting of, among others, Matthew Birk and Joshua Rosenthal, from the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, United States, and Eli Eisenberg, from Tel Aviv University in Israel.
Like other cephalopods, the octopuses studied cannot generate their own body heat to counteract the temperature drops that sometimes accompany tides, changes in water depth, and the changing of the seasons.
After cooling the water in the tanks used as residences for octopuses, the team observed increases in protein-disrupting activity at more than 13,000 RNA spots in the nervous systems of those octopuses.
By editing RNA, cephalopods seem to have found a unique way to modify their own physiology.
Octopus of the species Octopus bimaculoides. (Photo: Tom Kleindinst/Marine Biological Laboratory)
“We are used to thinking that all living beings are preprogrammed from birth with a certain set of instructions. The idea that the environment can influence this genetic information, as we have shown in cephalopods, is a new concept,” he stresses. Rosenthal.
Because editing modifies RNA only temporarily, it helps these animals to acclimate to temporary changes in temperature in their environment.
The same ability appears to be common in squid and cuttlefish.
The study is titled “Temperature-dependent RNA editing in octopus extensively recodes the neural proteome”. And it has been published in the academic journal Cell. (Source: NCYT from Amazings)
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