Sea Creature Revealed to Have So Much DNA It Can Hardly Be Called a Species

[THX1138]

Sea Creature Revealed to Have So Much DNA It Can Hardly Be Called a Species​

MSN

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.240428

 

[hitmouse]

That really depends on how one defines a species. If one reads the paper itself, that hyperbole is notably absent.

 

[Robert Zwilling]

There are at least two ways one can have genetic stability. One way is for the genome to remain completely stable and stay the same no matter what, with limited options. The other way is have a lot of non coding DNA that can be utilized to match whatever situation comes up so the basic shape stays the same but how it performs internally can change to match the current environment. It looks like there is a lot of DNA present, even from other species, but it only get used to match the current situation so the look itself doesn't change.

These brooding brittle stars are quite interesting. They take care of their young and are found in many different locations. It does take energy to care for the young unlike some marine varieties which release the larvae into the ocean currents and never interact with them again. Some species will pick a food source that no one else is eating in order to have a steady supply of food which can be utilized in reproducing the species, the brittle stars is a species that does this. They have to adapt their digestive and energy absorption processes to be able to use the food source they want to use. This requires genetic adaptability. I found an old article that said these brittle stars in particular were able to successfully interact with 15 different symbionts which could explain one way they got so much different DNA in them. Is all the extra genetic material needed or is some of it just left over graffiti by some parasite saying I was here. All these abilities probably have given them a good foothold in nature by being able to do the same thing several different ways. Maybe that is a sign of being a keystone species.

 

[Orcadian]

My first thought is that this is a graduate student prank.

Second thought was that if the work was really exciting / groundbreaking, it would have been published in Nature or Science Magazine

 

[Robert Zwilling]

Its not groundbreaking news, other species are similarly setup. Its just an attention grabbing title that is really meaningless. There are articles about this in other publications but they are extremely dry entertainment compared to this one. It could be a way of generating more interest in the subject which results in more grant money becoming available. There might be citizen scientists trying to sort this type of thing out, but very few professionals are investigating these things using their own money.

It would be news if we could develop a timeline of how the various environmental changes this brittle star adapted to were recorded in it's genetic history but we can't. It would be like having a car with an engine that could switch from gasoline to diesel to natural gas to ammonia to hydrogen and anything else you want to throw in there. We can change our food sources, even chemically create substitute food sources but it all has to be the same thing. This brittle star, as well as other species can use completely different kinds of energy sources to get the same results.

 

[Cthulhu.Science]

Cthulhu et al started with much more complex creatures before moving on to Humans.

 

[hitmouse]

My first thought is that this is a graduate student prank.

Second thought was that if the work was really exciting / groundbreaking, it would have been published in Nature or Science Magazine

There are loads of good papers that are not published either of those, for a number of reasons. The Royal Society is pretty blue chip in terms of publication.