Octopus, squid and cuttlefish are famous for engaging in complex behavior, from unlocking and escaping from an aquarium tank to instantaneous skin camouflage to hide from predators. A new study suggests their evolutionary path to neural sophistication includes a novel mechanism: Prolific RNA editing at the expense of evolution in their genomic DNA.
Liscovitch-Brauer, et al. (2017) Trade-off between transcriptome plasticity and genome evolution in cephalopods. Cell DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2017.03.025.
[Ed. Note: The wikipedia page on RNA editing is unclear unless you have some experience with biology. The New York Times does a better job of explaining what it is for the layman.]
(Score: 2, Funny) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Monday April 10 2017, @06:16AM
Cuttlefish [xkcd.com]