Octopus Senses: From Genes To Behavior

Octopuses are intelligent, soft-bodied animals, have complex nervous systems with remarkable cognitive abilities and keen senses that perform reliably in a variety of visual and chemo-tactile learning tasks for exploring and sensing the environment. They have the largest nervous system of any invertebrate, with 500 million neurons distributed centrally and peripherally throughout the body. The nervous system of common octopus (Octopus vulgaris), is comprised of central lobes surrounding the esophagus and a pair of optic lobes that together contain approximately a third of the neurons, with the remaining two-thirds distributed within the arms (e.g. in the large axial nerve cords that extends along the center of each of their eight arms). The most obvious characteristic feature of an octopus is its eight long and flexible arms, but these pose a great challenge for achieving the level of motor and sensory information processing necessary for their behaviors. In addition, octopuses have a significant number of lobes of the nervous system dedicated to visual, tactile, and chemosensory perception. In this study, I aimed to provide a comprehensive view on the genetic bases for the tactile form of olfaction, extraocular photoreception in the sucker, localization of photoreceptors molecules in the optic lobe of O. vulgaris, as well as to identify the major genes are involved in the adult neurogenesis and then the cognitive system in O. vulgaris. I have applied a developed whole-mount in situ hybridization, real-time qPCR, and bioinformatic methods, supported by behavioral evidences to provide a comprehensive view on these processes in O. vulgaris, highlight how genomic innovation translates into organismal organization novelties. Results achieved contributed to some extent, and promoted interest in this field