A squid glides through the water, and inside its cells an invisible transformation takes place: genetic messages receive thousands of edits, from which new variants of proteins are born. Once again the ocean reveals the beauty of life — this time at the molecular level.
In a study published on 15 October 2026 in the journal Cell, scientists showed how extensively squids use RNA editing and how these changes affect the work of proteins.
The object of the study was the Atlantic squid Doryteuthis pealeii. In its proteins, the team confirmed 7 997 recoding sitesaffecting 2 091 protein. Behind the precise numbers lies an astonishing ability of a living system to create diversity from a single genetic foundation.
A genetic instruction with room for possibilities
To understand the discovery, let us picture a cell at work.
DNA stores genetic information. From certain of its regions, RNA molecules are created — working messages by which the cell assembles proteins. And proteins perform a multitude of tasks: they speed up chemical reactions, transmit signals, and maintain cellular structures.
Special enzymes are capable of altering individual elements of RNA. Sometimes such an edit leads to the replacement of one building block of the future protein — an amino acid.
The original DNA sequence is preserved, while the resulting protein may possess different properties.
Such editing is found in other animals as well. However, squids, octopuses and cuttlefish use it on an extraordinarily large scale. The new work is devoted to what happens after editing: which changes are actually embodied in proteins.
Thousands of edits that become action
The researchers combined protein analysis with biochemical and cellular experiments.
It turned out that recoding can change a protein's stability, its activity and its location within the cell. It can also influence how proteins interact with one another.
This is a significant step: detecting a change in RNA is not enough to understand its consequences. Here the scientists traced how molecular edits are reflected in the properties of cellular components.
Picture a musical phrase: changing a single note is sometimes almost imperceptible, and sometimes it alters the character of the whole chord. At the molecular level, too, the consequences depend on exactly where the substitution occurred and what role the protein plays.
What remains a mystery for now
The work was carried out by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, together with Joshua Rosenthal's laboratory at the Marine Biological Laboratory — MBL. The first author is Jack Moen, and the corresponding author is Danielle Swoney.
The team demonstrated the functional consequences of many changes. The next task is to find out how this flexibility manifests itself in the life of the whole animal.
The study does not allow one to conclude that the squid consciously chooses molecular edits or is capable of deliberately changing itself. It reveals biological mechanisms whose significance has yet to be studied in full.
An ocean of possibilities within a single form
We notice the squid's movement, its silhouette, its shifting colour. The study allows us to see yet another level of diversity — inside the cells.
A single genetic foundation permits many variants of execution. Their properties acquire meaning in interaction with other molecules and with the entire cellular system.
Here science leaves us with a wonderful occasion for reflection: a familiar form of life may contain far more possibilities than our gaze is able to discern.
Every form has its own experience of existence, its own way of interacting with the world. By learning about them, we also expand our own perception of life.
Today the ocean has revealed yet another facet of its beauty: in the squid's smooth movement, an invisible molecular creativity continues — thousands of interactions thanks to which it lives, feels and moves.
