Squid and Octopus Genome Studies Reveal How Cephalopods’ Unique Traits Evolved
Published:07 May2022 Source:Marine Biological Laboratory
Now, scientists have dug into the cephalopod genome to understand how these unusual animals came to be. Along the way, they discovered cephalopod genomes are as weird as the animals are. Scientists from the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, the University of Vienna, the University of Chicago, the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology and the University of California, Berkeley, reported their findings in two new studies in Nature Communications.
"Large and elaborate brains have evolved a couple of times," said co-lead author Caroline Albertin, Hibbitt Fellow at the MBL. "One famous example is the vertebrates. Another is the soft-bodied cephalopods, which serve as a separate example for how a large and complicated nervous system can be put together. By understanding the cephalopod genome, we can gain insight into the genes that are important in setting up the nervous system, as well as into neuronal function."