Squid improve their RNA as cell lines move in the cold

Stress – Squid do not have thermostats for ocean temperatures. Instead, cephalopods tweak their RNA to adapt to colder waters, the study suggests.

Usually the genetic instructions encoded in DNA are faithfully translated into messenger RNA, or mRNA, and then into proteins. However, soft-shelled and cephalopods eat many of their mRNAs, so that the resulting cursors contain different building blocks than those written in the DNA.SN: 3/25/20; SN: 4/6/17).

“In these animals 60 percent or more of their protein is actually re-eaten. This is surprising in comparison to how [rarely RNA] “It’s used in mammals,” molecular biologist Kavita Rangan said on December 5 at Cell Bio 2022, the annual meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology and the European Organization for Molecular Biology.

Rangan, of the University of California, San Diego, investigated the consequences of eating protein kinesins. Those molecular motors move cargo through cells along protein tracks called microtubules. Problems in cellular pathways can lead to cell dysfunction or death and can contribute to disease.SN: 12/12/19).

Squid grypium cold 6° Celsius water day published mRNAs for proteins differently than grypium grypium placed in warm water 20° C, Rangoon found.

She then made an unpublished version and made some published versions of kinesin in the laboratory and compared the movement of the protein in microtubules. In the cold, unedited kinesin moves more slowly, travels shorter distances, and breaks down microtubule tracks more often than when warm.

The two published kinesins, like the cold water lollipop, moved a little slower than the unpublished times. But the updated versions grabbed microtubules more often and ran longer than the original kinesin. “This suggests that recoding may allow kinesin to stay on its tracks and go further” in the cold, Rangan said.

Some of the features in the RNAs instead of permanently changing the DNA would give the squid the flexibility to adapt to fluctuating ocean temperatures, he said.