Octopuses against genetic dogma

A cephalopod has as a rule to produce more proteins that aren’t codified in its DNA or present in its genome sequences. And that is because, as research tells us, cephalopod can better combat the cold. This modification is applied by octopus, squid and cuttlefish. Substituting one nucleoside for another, they belie that he RNA is always a faithful copy of the DNA. In very specific cases, this edition of the RNA can be also used by certain vertebrates. For example we human, we have 20 000 genes and a few dozen sites to edit the RNA; bur the calamari also have 20 000 genes but 11 000 sites to modified their RNA. They can change up to half of their RNA transcripts.

This study calls into questions the genetic dogma. Once again, biology surprises us and shows us how an octopus can modify its DNA.