Octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish; they all belong to a group
called coleoid cephalopods. This specific group is known to be the smartest of
the invertebrates. According to NY Times, a senior scientist at the Marine
Biological Laboratory named Joshua Rosenthal had said that they are the only “animal
lineage that has really achieved behavioral sophistication”. A recent study
conducted by Dr. Rosenthal and Eli Eisenberg revealed that RNA editing is
favored among coleoids even though it slows DNA evolution. Modified RNA allows
the creation of proteins that originally did not exist in the DNA. It was then
found that there are actually tens of thousands of recording sites. These
recording sites are where the resulting protein from RNA editing is different
from the originally encoded DNA. Coleoids share many of the tens of thousands of
sites while in humans and mice, even though they are closer in evolution, only
share about forty. The behavior of coleoids are believed to be due to the RNA editing
in the nervous tissues, potentially helping octopus quickly adapt to
temperature change. Those who were not involved with the study say that the
extensive RNA editing is “extraordinary” and “evolutionarily a big deal”.
The trade-off of having such capabilities shows the problem
of slow evolution. According to Dr. Eisenberg, it is a “big price to pay,” but “must
be worth it”.
This is a really interesting topic which makes me wonder
what if humans were capable of this as well.
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