The brains of octopus and their unique behavior stimulate basic research: shots

At the Marine Biology Lab at Woods Hole, Massachusetts, is a room filled with gigantic aquariums. Many of them have eyelids weighed down by big rocks.

"Octopuses are famous for being able, somehow, to escape from their pens," says Grasse Bret, whose official title at MBL is "Director of Cephalopod Exploitation" – the cephalopods being squid , cuttlefish and octopus.

He is part of a team that is trying to find the best ways to breed these marine creatures in captivity, so that scientists can study their genes and learn the secrets of their strange, almost alien ways.

For decades, much of the basic research in biology has focused on a few well-studied model organisms, such as mice, fruit flies, worms, and zebrafish.

This is because these creatures are easy to keep in the laboratory and scientists have discovered how to change their genes regularly, giving rise to all kinds of information about behavior, diseases and possible treatments.

"With these organisms, you could understand what genes did by manipulating them," says MBL biologist Josh Rosenthal. "And that really has become an indispensable part of biology."

But it also means that fundamental biology has ignored much of the animal kingdom, especially its more exotic inhabitants.

"We really miss, I would say, the diversity of solutions from biology to problems," notes Rosenthal.

This is why he is part of efforts to allow squid and octopus to be studied in the laboratory so that researchers can begin to explore their sophisticated brains and their unusual behaviors.

An incubator of cephalopods constructed from a bottle of soda (left) at the Woods Hole Marine Biology Laboratory, Mass. Inside are flamboyant cuttlefish embryos, a particularly colorful species. A close-up view (right) shows flamboyant cuttlefish embryos.

Courtesy of Tom Kleindinst / Marine Biology Laboratory

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Courtesy of Tom Kleindinst / Marine Biology Laboratory

An incubator of cephalopods constructed from a bottle of soda (left) at the Woods Hole Marine Biology Laboratory, Mass. Inside are flamboyant cuttlefish embryos, a particularly colorful species. A close-up view (right) shows flamboyant cuttlefish embryos.

Courtesy of Tom Kleindinst / Marine Biology Laboratory

But it's a tough business. Almost all octopuses are not social – they will attack each other – and must be kept in separate pens. In addition, cephalopods are very sensitive to the chemistry of the water around them. They are also growing extremely fast, which means that they need a lot of live food to fuel that growth.

MBL researchers have focused on species around the world that are small, relatively robust and reproduce quickly. The pygmy zebra octopus, for example, grows up to the size of a grape and lays many egg clutches throughout its life.

"This is the only place on the planet where we can grow a number of these species at all stages of life, over generations, in order to create a genetically modified system," says Grasse. "We will continue to expand this program as more and more scientific communities become involved, and we have already seen a positive response over the past two years."

"We do a census every week," he adds, "and we currently have about 3,000 cephalopods at our expense."

A visitor to the laboratory can hardly see any animals because he likes to hide. Grasse opens a plastic container and steps into the water to take out a little earthenware pot. Inside is an octopus at two locations in California.

"She's right there – you can see her eyeball watching us," said Grasse, explaining that the octopus was sitting on its eggs in this dark chamber. She throws him water.

Tanks used to raise cephalopods at the Marine Biology Laboratory.

Courtesy of Tom Kleindinst / Marine Biology Laboratory

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Courtesy of Tom Kleindinst / Marine Biology Laboratory

Tanks used to raise cephalopods at the Marine Biology Laboratory.

Courtesy of Tom Kleindinst / Marine Biology Laboratory

This species was the first octopus to have published its complete genetic sequence, a scientific feat for researchers in 2015 that launched this effort to transform cephalopods into a new research tool.

"I ended up sequencing the genome of the octopus because I'm interested in how you make a strange animal," says Carrie Albertin, who now works at MBL. "Most of their genes have similarities to the genes we have and to other animals, their close relatives are clams and snails, but they seem so so strange."

She notes that they are separated from us by hundreds of millions of years of evolution.

"Cephalopods are a fantastic example of an evolution that is totally independent of big brains," says Albertin. "They have these beautiful, fantastic and elaborate brains."

In addition, these animals can also change skin color, straighten their arms and move in water through jet propulsion.

The genetic sequences of several cephalopods are being deciphered, the most recent being that of Hawaiian squid. "People are working on the genomes of a group of different cephalopods," says Albertin. "I think there will be two more soon."

Knowing all genes is just the beginning for researchers interested in these animals. The next obvious step is to try to tinker with these genes to see what happens if they are disturbed.

Close-up shows juvenile octopus at two locations in California (left). An adult Hawaiian squid is seen right.

Courtesy of Tom Kleindinst / Marine Biology Laboratory

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Courtesy of Tom Kleindinst / Marine Biology Laboratory

Close-up shows juvenile octopus at two locations in California (left). An adult Hawaiian squid is seen right.

Courtesy of Tom Kleindinst / Marine Biology Laboratory

Rosenthal's lab worked hard to genetically engineer a cephalopod, and he said that they had "discussed" it over the past year, though he noted "nobody "I have not published this yet and it is really a work in progress".

It shows pictures of a Hawaiian squid, then a ghostly albino that his lab created by disrupting a pigmentation gene.

Understanding how to do this took a lot of work. Namrata Ahuja, research assistant, sits in front of a microscope, where she injects, over and over again and again, gene editing material into tiny squid embryos.

"You have embryos almost every day, and their laying can vary from 50 to 200 eggs in a single egg," she says. "So, if you have that much in one day, five days a week, that adds up."

Scientists had to find the best needles to use for these injections and the best way to support the growth of newly hatched squid. This is all unknown territory.

Ethical issues are also new. "I think we are very very concerned about the ethics surrounding these creatures, especially the fact that they are not regulated at the federal level," Rosenthal said.

In the United States, the rules of scientific research on animal welfare do not apply to animals without a spine, he says, but researchers here have nevertheless spent a lot of time thinking about human treatment.

A flamboyant adult cuttlefish raised in the marine biology laboratory.

Courtesy of Tom Kleindinst / Marine Biology Laboratory

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Courtesy of Tom Kleindinst / Marine Biology Laboratory

A flamboyant adult cuttlefish raised in the marine biology laboratory.

Courtesy of Tom Kleindinst / Marine Biology Laboratory

"We've kind of been at the forefront of trying to figure out what anesthesia is useful for cephalopods," Rosenthal says. They strive to guarantee conditions of life without stress.

"We have tried to be fairly pre-emptive on this point, putting together what I think, in the United States, is a one-of-a-kind policy for cephalopod research here," he says.

Because, even though octopus and squid are invertebrates, they are not as primitive as fruit flies and worms – and that's exactly why scientists want to study them.