7/2/2023 0 Comments Glow squids![]() Given their tentacles, color-changing skin and other biological novelties, bobtail squids may not seem like the most obvious candidates for helping with the study of symbiosis in humans or other animals. “Having the genome available will be a tremendous resource for the field of studying symbiotic relations,” said Cliff Ragsdale, a researcher at the University of Chicago who helped map the octopus genome but wasn’t involved in this new study. This work also marks the completion of the first genome for a squid - and only the second for a cephalopod of any kind, following the publication of a genome map for the octopus in 2015. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the findings lay the groundwork for future studies of animal-microbe interactions, including those in humans. By parsing the squid’s genome, the team has already discovered that the evolution of its light organ followed a completely different pathway than that of a second symbiotic organ, which supports reproduction. Now, Foster and an international team of researchers have mapped the genome of a Hawaiian bobtail squid, creating a new tool to explore these questions. But scientists still know little about how these relationships evolve or what spurs animals to grow specialized organs that encourage these symbioses. This mutually beneficial relationship has evolved over millions of years and is one of numerous examples of how multicellular animals and microbes work together to increase their chances of survival. In return for help with camouflage that protects against predators, the squid offers up sugars to feed the bacteria and lure them into the organ. “It is basically acting like a little invisibility cloak for the squid,” said Jamie Foster, a microbiologist at the Space Life Sciences Lab at the University of Florida. This microbe lives in an organ embedded in the squid’s ink sac and emits light throughout the night to match the illumination of the moon. So they rely on another organism to help out: the bacterium Vibrio fischeri. These soft-bodied, golf ball-size cephalopods don’t have much to protect them from predators like seals, eels and fish. Every evening, nocturnal Hawaiian bobtail squids ( Euprymna scolopes) emerge from their burrows in shallow waters of the Pacific to hunt for shrimp.
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