Eight-legged evolution exploits editing
RNA tweaks adapt octopuses to water temperature
By Rachel Ehrenberg
octopuses down, even though their nervous systems are governed by the same genetic instructions as their tropical counterparts. Now scientists know why: Edits to the creatures’ genetic instructions tweak the octopuses’ nerve cells for smooth operating in the numbing polar waters.
The discovery is the first report of such editing actually helping an organism adjust to its environment, scientists report online January 5 in Science.
Because nerve cells can’t send signals as quickly in the cold, scientists decided to compare genes from Pareledone, an octopus that lives in the icy waters off Antarctica, with those of the warm-water species Octopus vulgaris. To the researchers’ surprise, the genetic instructions were pretty much the same.
“It was a real disappointment at first,” says molecular neurobiologist Joshua Rosenthal of the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus in San Juan. “We thought there was going to be a difference in their genes, but they were basically identical. It was puzzling.”
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http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/337413/title/Eight-legged_evolution_exploits_editing
