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For those lost, the article is largely expanding on just a single sentence: > octopuses possess a massively expanded repertoire of microRNAs (miRNAs) in their
by eganist 4y ago
For those lost, the article is largely expanding on just a single sentence:
> octopuses possess a massively expanded repertoire of microRNAs (miRNAs) in their neural tissue – reflecting similar developments that occurred in vertebrates.
Better reading:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.add9938 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.add9938
- ghostpepper 4y agoIt seems like the crux of the discovery is the "expansion of repertoire" of miRNA, and the control group they're comparing to is vertebrates as a whole, and not specifically humans. According to some quick scanning on wikipedia, the importance of miRNA in neural tissues in mice has been shown by knocking out those genes. I wonder if the implication is that the massive complexity seen in vertebrate neural tissue is dependent on the ability of RNA to edit itself and somehow enable cognitive capabilities far beyond those encoded in the un-edited DNA? I'm just an enthusiastic layman so take all what I've written with a pail of salt.
- xattt 4y agoFurther to this, could some conditions that lead to neurodiversity be the result variations of miRNA expression mechanisms?
- melagonster 4y agousually, this is on octopus. human have more gene can generate more different RNA.