Octopuses have shown a unique ability to rewire their brains and adapt to temperature changes.

Unlike other animals, octopuses cannot regulate their internal body temperature, leaving their brains vulnerable to temperature fluctuations. 

In a recent study published in the journal Cell, researchers discovered that two-spot octopuses, a common species, produce different neural proteins under warm and cool conditions by editing their RNA.

“Most of the recoding is for proteins that are really important for nervous system function, so the natural question is, are they using this to acclimate to changes in their physical environment?” asked senior author Joshua Rosenthal of the Marine Biological Laboratory.

Compared to DNA mutations, which occur over generations, RNA editing provides a flexible and temporary way for individuals to adapt to environmental changes. 

While RNA editing is common across species, RNA recoding, which alters protein structure, is rare except in cephalopods like octopuses and squid.

“We generally think that our genetic information is fixed, but the environment can influence how you encode proteins, and in cephalopods this happens on a massive scale,” says senior author Joshua Rosenthal of the Marine Biological Laboratory of Woods Hole, Massachusetts.

Octopuses recode the majority of their neural proteins through RNA editing, offering them a diverse range of protein expression.

“RNA recoding gives organisms the option to express a diverse quiver of proteins when and where they choose,” says Rosenthal. 

The researchers acclimated adult octopuses to warm and cold water in tanks and observed changes in RNA transcripts. 

They found that over 20,000 individual sites underwent temperature-sensitive editing, particularly in neural proteins, and the degree of editing was higher in cold temperatures. 

The changes occurred rapidly, with significant alterations observed within a day.

The study also revealed that temperature-sensitive RNA editing occurs in wild octopuses, adapting to seasonal temperature fluctuations. 

The researchers suspect that this phenomenon is widespread among other cephalopods and squid. 

Future research aims to explore whether octopuses utilise RNA recoding to adapt to various environmental factors beyond temperature.