Olfaction & the octopus and human genomes

By: James V. Kohl | Published on: August 13, 2015

Secrets of the Deep: Scientists Sequence Genome of Octopus for First Time

Excerpt:

The genome was arranged differently than in other invertebrates and featured an expansion in a family of genes regulating nerve cell development that previously was thought to be enlarged only in vertebrates.

My comment: RNA-mediated gene duplication and RNA-mediated amino acid substitutions link nutrient-dependent thermodynamic cycles of protein biosynthesis and degradation to RNA-mediated  organism level thermoregulation in bacteria, yeasts, insects, marine invertebrates such as octopuses,  mammals, humans and all genera via their physiology of reproduction.
See for example:

Role of olfaction in Octopus vulgaris reproduction

Excerpt:

Future work on O. vulgaris olfaction must also consider how animals acquire the odours detected by the olfactory organ and what kind of odour the olfactory organ perceives. The OL acting as control centre may be target organ for metabolic hormones such as leptin like and insulin like peptides, and olfactory organ could exert regulatory action on the OL via epigenetic effects of nutrients and pheromones on gene expression (Kohl, 2013; Elekonich and Robinson, 2000).

My comment: In the past few years, Anna Di Cosmo’s group took the lead in attempts to link RNA-mediated cell type differentiation across species by placing what was known about the epigenetic effects  of nutrients and pheromones into the context of ecological, social, neurogenic, and socio-cognitive niche construction in octopuses, which are referred to as the primates of the sea.  Despite her group’s progress, others still struggle to explain sex differences in cell types.

See for example:

Uncovering the Neurological Differences Between the Sexes

Excerpt 1)

“Our study starts to put some specifics on what types of molecular differences there are in male and female brains,” Woolley said.

Excerpt 2)

The researchers found the difference between males and females lies in the interaction between the molecules ERalpha and mGluR1. Details of the molecular pathway are reported in the new study.

My comment: Their details should have already been reported in the context of RNA-mediated cell type differentiation and sex differences in behaviors that are obviously hormone-organized and hormone-activated.
Re: mGluR1 see:
Variations in postnatal maternal care and the epigenetic regulation of metabotropic glutamate receptor 1 expression and hippocampal function in the rat
Excerpt:

Preliminary genome-wide analyses of gene transcription and DNA methylation of the molecular basis for such maternal effects suggested differences in the epigenetic state and transcriptional activity of the Grm1 gene in the rat as a function of maternal care. Grm1 encodes the type I metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR1)…

Re: ERalpha see
Estrogen receptor α polymorphism in a species with alternative behavioral phenotypes
Excerpt: 

Estrogen receptor-mediated differences in parental feeding behavior appear to contribute to sex differences and species differences in morphology and in overt social behavior.

Scientists uncover a difference between the sexes
Excerpt 3)

Her discovery, reported in 2012, that estrogens decreased inhibitory synaptic transmission in the brains of female rats but not in males, changed her thinking.
“Being a scientist is about changing your mind in the face of new evidence,” Woolley said. “I had to change my mind in the face of this evidence.”

My comment: What possesses someone to report that evidence was the reason why she changed her mind nearly 2 decades after the evidence for RNA-mediated sex differences in cell types was presented in the molecular epigenetics section of our 1996 Hormones and Behavior review?
She might just as well claim to have missed all the accumulated experimental evidence that supports our claims. She has placed her group’s claims into the context of differences in estrogen and testosterone, which are controlled by gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH). Epigenetic effects of food odors and pheromones on vertebrate GnRH can be linked to sex differences in cell types, which arose as ecological adaptations that led to fixation of RNA-mediated amino acid substitutions and chromosomal rearrangements.
Serious scientists are examining ecological variation and ecological adaptations in the context of biologically-based precision medicine.
Precision Medicine: Unlocking Biological Mysteries begins in one day.
LIVE WEBCAST DATE: August 13, 2015
LIVE WEBCAST TIME: 02:30 PM EDT
Why have sex researchers fallen so far behind the serious scientists who are unlocking all biological mysteries instead of reporting them one by one.
See also: Amino acid substitutions and adapted cell types  December (2013)

See also: The Mystery of Aging, Solved at Last!

The mysteries of sex differences in aging are not going to be solved until everyone accepts the facts about cell type differentiation in all cell types. Cell type differentiation is, of course, nutrient-dependent and occurs only in the context of the physiology of reproduction whether or not a species has ecologically adapted to sexual reproduction, which is controlled by the metabolism of nutrients to species-specific pheromones in species from microbes to man –even in those individuals or species that do not sexually reproduce.


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