RNA editing by adenosine deamination is a mechanism for acclimation, a challenge that Octopus bimaculoides experiences due to the large seasonal temperature changes in the Pacific Ocean along the southern Californian coast. Reporting in Cell, Birk et al. explored the effects of temperature on RNA recoding across the neural transcriptome of adult octopuses in temperature-controlled aquaria (13 °C and 22 °C) for 2–3 weeks. RNA editing analysis of stellate ganglia showed that around 33% of the recoding sites had higher editing levels at 13 °C than at 22 °C (cold-induced); these changes occurred rapidly upon temperature shifting (within hours) before becoming stable after four days. Cold-induced RNA editing led to structural and functional reconfiguration of two neural proteins, kinesin-1, involved in axonal transport, and synaptotagmin, important in synaptic transmission, which underwent alterations in motility properties and Ca2+-binding dynamics, respectively. The authors observed similar results in wild octopus populations collected during winter and late summer. Finally, comparison of O. bimaculoides and O. bimaculatus showed that cold-induced RNA editing is evolutionarily conserved across these two closely related species. Overall, this study proposes temperature-dependent RNA recoding as a mechanism for neural proteomic reconfiguration in octopus acclimation. Future work should strive to understand whether RNA editing can respond to other changes in the physical environment.
Original reference: Cell 186, 2544–2555.e13 (2023)
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