washington — Squid don’t have a thermostat to control ocean temperature. Instead, a study shows that cephalopods adjust their RNA to adapt to colder waters.
Normally, genetic instructions encoded in DNA are faithfully copied into messenger RNA, or mRNA, and then into proteins.but squid and other software Cephalopods edit many of their mRNAs Thus, the resulting protein contains some different building blocks than those inscribed in DNA (Serial Number: 3/25/20; SN: 4/6/17).
“In these animals, 60% or more of the proteins were actually recoded. This is surprising compared to how [rarely RNA] Editing is for mammals,” molecular biologist Kavita Rangan said Dec. 5 at Cell Bio 2022, the annual joint meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology and the European Molecular Biology Organization.
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Rangan at UC San Diego studies the effects of editing on proteins called kinesins. These molecular motors transport cargo throughout the cell along protein tracks called microtubules. Problems on the cellular railroads can cause cells to malfunction or die, may cause disease (Serial Number: 12/12/19).
Soak squid larvae in cold water at 6 degrees Celsius for a day Kinesin editing mRNA Rangon found that this was different and heavier than hatchlings placed in warm water at 20°C.
She then made an unedited version and several edited versions of the kinesin in the lab and compared the movements of the proteins on microtubules. In the cold environment, the unedited kinesin moved more slowly, traveled a shorter distance, and fell off the microtubule track more frequently than when it was warm.
The two edited kinesins, like the squid made in cold water, moved a bit slower than the unedited proteins. But the engineered version grabbed onto microtubules more frequently and took longer to run than the unedited kinesin. “This suggests that recoding can keep kinesins on track and go further in the cold,” Rangan said.
Altering some of the on-demand RNA rather than permanently altering the DNA might allow the squid to adapt more flexibly to fluctuating ocean temperatures, she said.
