A Genetic Oddity May Give Octopuses and Squids Their Smarts
Coleoid cephalopods, a group encompassing octopuses, squid and cuttlefish, are the most intelligent invertebrates: Octopuses can open jars, squid communicate with their own Morse code and cuttlefish start learning to identify prey when they’re just embryos.
In fact, coleoids are the only “animal lineage that has really achieved behavioral sophistication” other than vertebrates, said Joshua Rosenthal, a senior scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. This sophistication could be related to a quirk in how their genes work, according to new research from Dr. Rosenthal and Eli Eisenberg, a biophysicist at Tel Aviv University.
In the journal Cell on Thursday, the scientists reported that octopuses, squid and cuttlefish make extensive use of RNA editing, a genetic process thought to have little functional significance in most other animals, to diversify proteins in their nervous system. And natural selection seems to have favored RNA editing in coleoids, even though it potentially slows the DNA-based evolution that typically helps organisms acquire beneficial adaptations over time.
Paper:
http://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(17)30344-6
Source & further reading:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/06/science/octopus-squid-intelligence-rna-editing.html?smid=tw-nytimesscience&smtyp=cur&_r=0
Gif: Octopus uses coconut shell as armor
#biodiversity #octopus #RNA #evolution #coolcritters
It's illegal to use "intelligence and "divine" in the same sentence.
ReplyDeleteCertainly there's something paradoxical to individual intelligence in short-lived r-strategists such as coleoid cephalopods. No time nor social lives to accumulate much experience or transmit any form of culture; also, with a significant share of environmental feedback coming via natural selection.
ReplyDeleteSo this RNA editing in neurons comes as a case of two mysteries likely to explain each other. How does it feel to be intelligent without education nor much individual past?
I have been working to upgrade and modify my body armor for work of late. When I saw this I couldn't help but think....finally I am not the only one. Got me to smile!
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