Novel Genetic Editing Superpower in Squid Found According to Present Study

The squid and its cephalopod siblings are known for their spectacular superpowers and the astonishing abilities. The squid has added genetic editing to its list of unique skills and talents.

Scientists from the Marine Biological Laboratory or MBL of the University of Chicago, Massachusetts have discovered recently that the squid is capable of immensely editing its genetic instructions not just within its neurons' nucleus but also within the axon where neural projections send electrical impulses to its other neurons. This is the very first type of external genetic editing that has been discovered to transpire outside the nucleus of an animal cell.

This scientific research was conducted at the MBL in Woods Hole, Massachusetts by lead researchers Isabel C. Vallecillo-Viejo and Joshua Rosenthal. The study was also published in Nucleic Acids Research this week.

This discovery comes as a shock in the study of molecular biology according to the MBL as this challenges the vital belief and fundamental principle that genetic information is handed faithfully from the DNA to the messenger RNA and into the protein synthesis. In 2015, Joshua Rosenthal and his colleagues have discovered that squids may edit or modify their messenger RNA instructions to an astonishing degree which allow them to improve what kinds of proteins will be released and produced in the nervous system,

Rosenthal who is also the senior author on the present study admitted that for the longest time, RNA editing is thought to occur only in the nucleus, and edited messenger RNAs are then exported out into the cell. With this recent finding, it is evident that squids can actually modify and change the RNAs outside, particularly in the fringes of the cell. This means that, theoretically, based on the results of the study, squids are capable of changing or modifying their protein function and tailor-fitting it to address the localized needs of the cell. This gives them more than enough opportunity to alter genetic information as needed. The team from MBL also showed that messenger RNAs which are modified in the axon of the nerve cells are edited at much higher and faster rates than in the organism's nucleus.

In a separate study from University of Oxford, axonal dysfunction and damage in humans is associated with several disorders related to neurological or CNS damage and disease. Insights from the results of the research from MBL may accelerate efforts and programs conducted by biotech companies in seeking to harness this natural genetic editing in messenger RNAs done by the organisms and in turn for the therapeutic benefit of humans.

This study has been conducted by MBL in collaboration with scientists and researchers from The University of California in Denver and Tel Aviv University in Israel, that also partnered with MBL on the research about the squid's capability of editing RNA.

Previously, Rosenthal and his colleagues have shown that octopus and cuttlefish, cephalopod siblings of squids, also depend on mRNA editing to diversify the types of proteins that they can produce in the nervous system. These cephalopods are known for their out-of-this-world behaviors and advanced capabilities.

This discovery opened up discussions on new genetic technology called gene-editing that would hack DNA's genetic code to eradicate the disease.