Man and octopus are similar: scientists have discovered a new common trait

Cephalopods such as octopuses, squid and cuttlefish are highly intelligent animals with complex nervous systems. ScienceAlert wrote that a team of scientists led by Nikolaus Rajewski of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in Germany has shown in a new study that their evolution is associated with a sharp expansion in the microRNA repertoire.

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There are many wonderful creatures on our planet, but some are more peculiar than others. This is especially true of octopuses, unusual animals that some conspiracy theorists regard as alien creatures.

However, there is plenty of evidence that the evolution of octopuses is directly related to our planet, and scientists have recently found another one. We’re talking about a feature that these cephalopod brains have in common with the brains of humans and other vertebrates: a huge repertoire of microRNAs in their nervous tissues. According to Rajewski, this is exactly what unites a person with an octopus.

Scientists believe that octopuses are very intelligent, have a highly complex brain. Some scientists suggest that these animals can even dream. But unlike other intelligent animals, their nervous systems are highly distributed throughout the body.

There is something else really strange about octopuses and other cephalopods. Their bodies can quickly edit their RNA sequences to adapt to their environment. Adaptation doesn’t usually work like that, it usually starts with DNA and these changes are passed on to RNA. This has led scientists to wonder what other RNA secrets octopuses might be hiding.

The scientists sequenced the RNA of several dead octopuses, and the result was a surprise. Rajewski said that octopuses do a lot of RNA editing, but not in areas they think are of particular interest.

Scientists have found that octopuses have large numbers of miRNAs. These are non-coding RNA molecules that actively participate in the regulation of gene expression by binding to larger RNA molecules to help cells fine-tune the proteins they make.

The fact that these miRNA families have survived in octopuses suggests that they still play an important role in the biology of these cephalopods, although scientists do not yet know what that role is or in which cells the miRNAs are located.

According to the scientists, this is the third largest distribution of miRNAs in the animal kingdom and the largest in invertebrates. For example, oysters, which are also mollusks and share common ancestors with octopuses, were able to acquire only five new microRNA families because they followed a different evolutionary path. And octopuses have acquired as many as 90 families. Such a large increase in the number of miRNAs has occurred only in vertebrates, but on a much larger scale. For example, the human genome encodes about 2600 miRNA families.

The scientists said this finding suggests that the complex intelligence in octopuses may be due to this expansion of microRNAs. Interestingly, this is not the only similarity between the brain of an octopus and the brain of vertebrates. Scientists had previously discovered that human and octopus brains contain large numbers of cells called transposons. Because they may be required for complex brains in animals, scientists now want to learn exactly what these miRNAs do.

Focus He had already written about a recent study of scientists that showed a striking similarity between the visual system of octopuses and humans.

Moreover Focus He wrote that scientists have found the reason why octopuses self-destruct after mating.