Octopuses Are Aliens With Weird DNA And Superpower Capabilities

[NWCorona]

"The DNA of octopus may not be from this world, scientists revealed. The new study concluded that octopuses actually have alien DNA!

According to the study published in the journal Nature, octopuses have a genome that yields an unprecedented level of complexity, composed of 33,000 protein-coding genes. This number is way beyond the number that can be found in a human being.

The marine biologists behind this discovery intend to understand the DNA code of octopuses to understand them better. Through this first-ever full-genome sequence, the biologists claimed that octopuses cannot be compared to any other animal on this planet.

This is not the first study to highlight octopuses' rarity. An earlier study by, Dr. Clifton Ragsdale, hailing from the University of Chicago, claimed that the octopuses cannot even compare to other molluscs. It's eight prehensile arms, large brain and remarkable problem-solving abilities make it stand out more.

"The late British zoologist Martin-Wells said the octopus is an alien. In this sense, then, our paper describes the first sequenced genome from an alien."

The researchers from the University of Chicago added that the genome of octopuses is actually full of transposons or the jumping genes. These genes can rearrange themselves on the genome although what their real role is still be investigated."

http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/42067/20160613/octopuses-aliens-weird-dna-superpower-capabilities.htm

Regardless off the click baitish headline. It's an interesting article. I've always loved octopuses.

[donco]

1. Anyway way

we can get some genome outta Trump?That top octopus looks like he might be related.

[Fuddnik]

3. The octopus evolved a bigger brain.

[kcdoug1]

2. I KNEW

this would be were my family tree would lead me!

[petronius]

4. There's a classic science fiction story by Arthur C. Clarke that 'explains' lemmings

as the de-evolved remnant of an alien lifeform. I can see that applying to octopi: some interstellar visitor stranded here millennia ago, and gradually degenerating into a bizarre yet brilliant sea creature...

[Spitfire of ATJ]

5. Oh R'lyeh?

[pokerfan]

11. Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

[sakabatou]

6. Or we don't have analogs for sequencing or fossilized bodies

means they're aliens (according to the article). The hell?

[MFM008]

8. maybe they are aliens

eeeewwwwwwwww.

[MisterP]

13. so I was like AAAAGATAGAT, and the RNA was like UUUUCUAEUCUA

[patricia92243]

7. There a certin ocyupus that can change their color to match their background.

They showed one next to a checker background. It immediately changed to checkered. It would change to any color they held next to it. Fascinating.

[L. Coyote]

9. Meanwhile, what the scientists are saying is not anywhere near this click bait site.

Published online 12 August 2015:

Coleoid cephalopods (octopus, squid and cuttlefish) are active, resourceful predators with a rich behavioural repertoire1. They have the largest nervous systems among the invertebrates2 and present other striking morphological innovations including camera-like eyes, prehensile arms, a highly derived early embryogenesis and a remarkably sophisticated adaptive colouration system1, 3. To investigate the molecular bases of cephalopod brain and body innovations, we sequenced the genome and multiple transcriptomes of the California two-spot octopus, Octopus bimaculoides. We found no evidence for hypothesized whole-genome duplications in the octopus lineage4, 5, 6. The core developmental and neuronal gene repertoire of the octopus is broadly similar to that found across invertebrate bilaterians, except for massive expansions in two gene families previously thought to be uniquely enlarged in vertebrates: the protocadherins, which regulate neuronal development, and the C2H2 superfamily of zinc-finger transcription factors. Extensive messenger RNA editing generates transcript and protein diversity in genes involved in neural excitability, as previously described7, as well as in genes participating in a broad range of other cellular functions. We identified hundreds of cephalopod-specific genes, many of which showed elevated expression levels in such specialized structures as the skin, the suckers and the nervous system. Finally, we found evidence for large-scale genomic rearrangements that are closely associated with transposable element expansions. Our analysis suggests that substantial expansion of a handful of gene families, along with extensive remodelling of genome linkage and repetitive content, played a critical role in the evolution of cephalopod morphological innovations, including their large and complex nervous systems.

[longship]

10. PZ Myers had something to say about this.

Really not alien at all

Almost a year ago, I briefly wrote up the results of the cephalopod genome sequence— a sequence, which thanks to a few off-the-cuff, silly remarks by one of the authors, had turned into an assertion by irresponsible journalists that science had proven that octopuses were aliens. They haven’t. Researchers actually found many commonalities — cephalopods are a branch of the animal family tree, and share genes with all other organisms on the planet.

But hey, what do you know, deja vu all over again. Inanity re-emerges, with a recent article titled SCIENTISTS CONCLUDE OCTUPUS DNA IS NOT FROM THIS WORLD.
(Much more at link)

Science reportage so often utterly sucks. My advice? Read PZ Myers daily.

[Crunchy Frog]

12. I don't expect to ever find any valid science reporting in the popular meeting.

It's almost like scientific illiteracy is a job requirement.

[Hekate]

14. They are incredibly intelligent. I don't eat them any more.

I've long thought that First Contact with alien (so to speak) intelligent lifeforms has already taken place, but we have not seen it for what it is because it is in the vast oceans of our own planet. All the markers of what we think of as civilization are very likely there, but we have not yet managed to decode and interpret the language.

[Scuba]

15. Fascinating creatures, the favorite to observe of many divers, including this one.

[csziggy]

16. I welcome our cephalopod overlords!

Andre Norton had a mediocre book about octupi leading an overthrow of humans - Sea Seige. Here is a review with a pretty good synopsis of the plot:

There was nothing left for man—no hole in which to hide
Sea Siege — Andre Norton

1957’s Sea Siege begins as though Norton might be trying to emulate Willard Price’s Adventure novels. A little later, I was reminded of John Wyndham. It might be that Norton was looking at what was selling in the 1950s and shaping her books accordingly.

Like Price’s equally fictional Hunt brothers, Griffith Gunston is the son of a prominent naturalist. (Griffith’s father, Dr. Ramsay Gunston, is an ichthyologist.) Unlike the Hunt brothers, Griffith is not at all interested in his father’s research. Griffith yearns for a career as a jet pilot! That is, if impending nuclear war holds off long enough for Griffith to join the air force.

Unfortunately for Griffith and everyone else on the isolated island of San Isadore, while Griffith may have no interest in what’s under the sea, what’s under the sea has a keen interest in the humans of this part of the West Indies and perhaps humans across the world as well.

As the book opens, a mysterious Red Plague is killing off the fish in the world’s oceans. Given that fishing is a primary activity on San Isadore, that would be bad enough, but the locals are even more concerned by the way ships are vanishing or turning up bereft of crew. While some of the locals blame dupees, sea monsters, a reasonable person like Griffith disagrees. The explanation is a lot more likely to involve enemy submarines, given that the Cold War is accelerating toward Hot. Well, reasonable people can be wrong.
http://jamesdavisnicoll.com/review/there-was-nothing-left-for-man-no-hole-in-which-to-hide

[Wednesdays]

17. Correct me if I'm wrong, but...

doesn't every living creature on earth have "alien" DNA?