Tuesday 17 February 2015

Squid recode genetic data to adapt to surroundings

February 15, 2015


Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

Researchers from the US and Israel have identified the first-ever example of a creature capable of editing its own genetic makeup in order to blend into its surroundings – the squid.

Reporting in a recent edition of the journal eLife, Dr. Eli Eisenberg of the Tel Aviv University Department of Physics and Sagol School of Neuroscience and his colleagues explained that the Doryteuthis pealieii squid can alter most of its own proteins on an as-needed basis.

“We have demonstrated that RNA editing is a major player in genetic information processing rather than an exception to the rule,” explained Dr. Eisenberg, who co-authored the study along with researchers from the University of Connecticut Health Center, Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and the University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus.

“By showing that the squid’s RNA-editing dramatically reshaped its entire proteome – the entire set of proteins expressed by a genome, cell, tissue, or organism at a certain time – we proved that an organism’s self-editing of mRNA is a critical evolutionary and adaptive force,” he continued, adding that the discovery could also have implications for treating diseases in humans.


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