3 ms·

Is this related at all to octopuses rewriting their RNA to pass inter-cellular information? https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/04/

• jfarlow 9y ago
  Only in that RNA, as an intermediate between the relatively immutable DNA-based source code, and the running protein programs acts as a nice intermediate with which to compress, alter, and otherwise regulate how the code actually runs. RNA has traditionally been tricky to study - it's very fragile. And so our current studies are constantly revealing really cool new capabilities (CRISPR is also an RNA-interacting protein). In the octopus' case, the RNA is being altered post-compilation, in ways that are somehow critical to their neural development. And that kind of process is unusual, and seems to be one that the octopus really depends on for its 'smarts' - it's not just an evolutionary side-project. While in the OP's case, the protein likely comes from an HIV-like infection that we've repurposed to help transmit compressed, ready-to-run code without having to transmit the large and short-lived binaries (proteins).