A little squid sheds light on evolution with bacteria

Scientists have found clues to the origin and evolution of symbiotic organs in animals from the genome of the Hawaiian bobtail squid, Euprymna scolopes. ( Image courtesy of Sarah McAnulty/UConn Photo.)

Bacteria, which are vital for the health of all animals, also played a major role in the evolution of animals and their tissues. In an effort to understand just how animals co-evolved with bacteria over time, researchers have turned to the Hawaiian bobtail squid, Euprymna scolopes.

In a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an international team of researchers, led by University of Connecticut associate professor of molecular and cell biology Spencer Nyholm, sequenced the genome of this little squid to identify unique evolutionary footprints in symbiotic organs, yielding clues about how organs that house bacteria are especially suited for this partnership.

The first squid genome was sequenced by Nyholm, along with Jamie Foster of the University of Florida, Oleg Simakov of the University of Vienna, and the paper’s lead author Mahdi Belcaid of the Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB). The team found several surprises, for instance, that the Hawaiian bobtail squid’s genome is 1.5 times the size of the human genome.

Read more about it in Phys.org, NPR, the Environmental News Network, and UConn Today.