TEIXOBACTINA

                                  TEIXOBACTINA

La noticia del descubrimiento del primer antibiótico en los últimos 25 años ha supuesto un auténtico bombazo. La Teixobactina parece ser el candidato a uno de los antibióticos del futuro al habernos quedado prácticamente sin ellos por las resistencias generadas en los últimos años. Pero, aunque esto es un bombazo, la técnica con la que se ha descubierto aún supone un bombazo mayor y que puede provocar una nueva edad dorada del descubrimiento de nuevos antibióticos.

En los últimos 25 años, no habíamos vuelto a descubrir ningún antibiótico y todas las organizaciones médicas y científicas comenzaban a dar la voz de alarma de que los antibióticos actuales ya no servían, ya que el uso excesivo y en muchas ocasiones sin razones médicas de muchos de ellos, habían hecho que perdieran efectividad al ir generándose resistencias.

Hace unos días, Nature publicaba un interesantísimo paper donde Ling et al. (2015), explicaban que habían descubierto un nuevo antibiótico que mataba patógenos sin resistencia detectable. Este nuevo antibiótico, conocido como Teixobactina, es capaz de actuar contra bacterias gram positivas, implicadas en un gran número de enfermedades como colitis, tuberculosis, conjuntivitis, meningitis o la neumonía. Además y quizás lo más importante, es que no generaba una resistencia inmediata entre las bacterias supervivientes a su ataque.

Aunque es bastante complicado predecir si en el futuro las bacterias pueden generar resistencias y por tanto ser inmunes a la teixobactina, no se espera que este hecho no se produzca hasta dentro de unas cuantas décadas, ya que el funcionamiento de este antibiótico, recuerda al de la vancomicina, un antibiótico descubierto en los años 50, que actúa contra la pared celular bacteriana y que funcionó de una forma efectiva durante más de 30 años hasta que las bacterias aprendieron a vencerla.

La forma de actuar de la teixobactina se realiza mediante la unión a los lípidos que los microorganismos emplean para producir sus paredes celulares, de forma que esta unión a los lípidos provoca que no puedan seguir formándola, la debilitan y finalmente acaba provocando la muerte del microorganismo.

El pequeño gran problema, es que no es eficaz contra todas las bacterias, ya que funciona sobre las gram positivas, pero no funciona sobre las gram-negativas que poseen una membrana externa adicional a la pared celular, lo que le confiere una gran resistencia y por tanto no serían atacados por este antibiótico.

Si quieren saber más sobre el funcionamiento de la teixobactina y cómo actúa sobre los microorganismos, lean a Bioama en Naukas con Teixobactina, el “superantibiótico”.

Además del descubrimiento del nuevo antibiótico, los investigadores que forman parte deNovoBiotic Pharmaceuticals; una spin-off de la Northeastern University, lograron algo que puede revolucionar el conocimiento de nuevos antibióticos y del conocimiento científico.

Habitualmente lo que se suele hacer es cultivar los microorganismos en medios de cultivo de laboratorio y probar la capacidad de producir antibióticos, pero de todas las (millones de) especies existentes, sólo un 1% puede crecer bien en estos medios de cultivo, donde las condiciones de crecimiento están controladas con lo que el número de microorganismos que podemos estudiar es algo reducido.

Ante este problema, lo que hicieron los investigadores fue desarrollar un sistema multicanal de membranas semipermeables (denominado iChip), que “engañan” a las bacterias y hongos, haciéndolas creer que están en su medio natural y no en un medio de laboratorio.

El ‘iChip’ es esencialmente un dispositivo con un gran número de pequeños canales, en el que se depositan los microorganismos y donde pueden ser recubiertos de tierra que permea canales, aunque en lugar de suelo, es una membrana semipermeable, que permite a los factores ambientales que influyen en el crecimiento celular bacteriana a difundir a través de las células del microorganismo. Utilizando este método, los investigadores fueron capaces de cultivar bacterias que no se habían podido cultivar con anterioridad en condiciones de laboratorio.

Para explicarlo de forma sencilla: lo que se hace ahora es coger un poco de suelo, se mezcla con agua, se agita, se pone en contacto con este dispositivo y se comienzan a identificar los compuestos que producen actividad interesante para el estudio. Sí, parece una tontería pero no es tan sencillo porque los microorganismos no crecen tan fácil en el laboratorio.

Tras analizar cerca de 10.000 microorganismos diferentes procedentes de muestras del suelo; en concreto del estado de Maine, sólo 25 producían algún tipo de sustancia que podría ser empleada como antibiótico y se observó que la bacteria Eleftheria terrae, mostraba cierta actividad contra Staphylococcus aureus.

La teixobactina es muy tóxica para los microorganismo, pero no para el tejido de mamíferos y vieron que funcionaba bien contra S. aureus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis o Clostridium difficile, con un poder antibiótico efectivo incluso frente a las cepas resistentes de estos patógenos.

Lo que se ha publicado han sido los ensayos en ratones y además el antibiótico fue aplicado de forma intravenosa, por lo que aún queda bastante hasta verla comercializada.

Según explican los investigadores, esperan que los ensayos puedan comenzar a realizarlos en 2-3 años cuando puedan tener organizados los primeros grupos de control y que en 2-3 años más (sobre 2020-2022), el antibiótico pueda estar comercializado o en fase de aprobación.

Aunque en ratones parece funcionar bien, sólo un 8% de los compuestos que pasa la fase de experimentación llega al final al mercado y pueden ser comercializados.

Además, que fuera ensayada de forma intravenosa supone un hándicap ya que aunque eso es bueno porque actúa de una forma más eficaz, este hecho supone un problema ya que no sería fácilmente accesible por la población, necesitaría unas condiciones de manejo determinadas y de conservación, con lo que además de las dificultades técnicas habría que sumar un aumento de costes.

Lo ideal sería una pastilla, pero esto supone otro hándicap y es resistir la entrada al estómago por lo que habría que diseñar un recubrimiento para que llegue y su mecanismo de actuación siga funcionando.

Sí, han logrado algo importante y que si el dispositivo parece funcionar de esta forma tan buena que permite cultivar microorganismos que antes no podíamos, lograrán bastante dinero que puede financiar la investigación de la Teixobactina. Aún así, esto no será fácil y ahora necesitarán bastante dinero para poder hacer todo el proceso.

Según explicó en una rueda de prensa Kim Lewis, uno de los autores del estudio y cabezas visibles de Novobiotic, “el coste total de poder llevar un antibiótico al mercado estaría entre 1.000 y 2.000 Millones de dólares, aunque en este coste se incluiría el coste del fracaso”. En el caso de la Teixobactina, el coste estaría en “unos cientos millones de dólares”.

·                 Ling LL, Schneider T, Peoples AJ, Spoering AL, Engels I, Conlon BP et al. 2015. A new antibiotic kills pathogens without detectable resistance”. Nature (published online)

·                 Northeastern University – Newly discovered antibiotic kills pathogens without resistance

·                 Novobiotic – Compounds and Publications

·                 CompoundChem – Teixobactin: A New Antibiotic, and A New Way to Find More

·                 Forbes – Teixobactin And iChip Promise Hope Against Antibiotic Resistance

·                 Corante – Teixobactin: A New Antibiotic From a New Platform?

·                 NBC – Common as Dirt: New Antibiotic May Conquer Superbugs

@RdzgCarlos.  Este blog tiene una licencia Creative commons 4 Internacional.

Fotos | iChip technology – courtesy Slava Epstein, Northwestern UniversityiChip

A MIRACLE BANDAGE

A MIRACLE BANDAGE

Nano-dressing Material

For healing wounds and wound infections VitaVallis is the latest nano-dressing material.It is a safe alternative to antibiotics.It does not contain antibiotics, sulfanilamides or other pharmaceuticals chemicals.VitaVallis helps to clean up wounds of all known types of toxic bacteria.VitaVallis heals burns and cuts up to two to three times faster than the present dressing material used.It does nor get stuck to the wound.It helps to to remove foul wound odour and kills the the pain.It stops inflammation and bleeding and helps the skin to regenerate.It is really effective against drug-resistant bacteria. Conventionaldressing uses antiseptic medicine to kill pathological microbes were as VitaVallis dressing sucks microbes from the wound without any use of medicine .

Field trail have shown that VitaVallis healed 4th degree burn in in 80 days were as conventional dressing may require 180 days.VitaVallis dressing has nanosized Positively charged alumina fibre which extracts negative electric charge Pathological bacteria from the wounds.It effectively removes microorganisms, including antibiotic resistant ones.

Million of surgical operations are performed annually.The death rate from sepsis induced by antibiotic resistant staphylococcus strains amounts to more than 80 % which is more than people dieing from stokes and heart attacks.Post-operative wound infections comprise 14–16 % of all hospital infections.77 % of deaths are caused by wound infections.What penicillin did to health care in 20th century, VitaVallis technology is about to the same by saving millions of lives around the world Vitavallis Nano-dressing Material heals better than antibiotics and even kills drug-resistant bacteria without antibiotics.

References:health.wikinut.com

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@RdzgCarlos

El mito del colesterol

                             El mito del colesterol

Hasta finales del siglo pasado se recomendaba limitar el consumo de huevos, por su alto contenido en colesterol, como una medida de prevención cardiovascular. En 1973, la Asociación Americana del Corazón (American Heart Association, en inglés) recomendó limitar la ingesta de huevos a un máximo de tres por semana. Esta idea fue aceptada durante años por los responsables sanitarios, quienes a su vez la transmitieron a la población general.

Sin embargo, el efecto que el colesterol dietético (el ingerido a través de los alimentos) ejerce sobre los niveles de colesterol plasmático (el presente en la sangre) en personas sanas es mínimo y depende en gran medida de factores individuales como la genética, el peso corporal o los hábitos de vida (actividad física y tabaquismo).

Los principales responsables dietéticos del aumento de los niveles de colesterol en sangre (y en particular del colesterol perjudicial, el LDL) son las grasas saturadas y las parcialmente hidrogenadas (también llamados ácidos grasos trans). Por ello, restringir el consumo de este tipo de grasas es más beneficioso para el perfil lipídico del plasma sanguíneo que reducir el colesterol de la dieta. Aunque la mayor parte de los alimentos ricos en colesterol suelen ser también ricos en grasas saturadas, el huevo no lo es. Un huevo de tamaño medio contiene unos 200 mg de colesterol, pero tiene más grasas insaturadas que saturadas y solo 70 calorías. Debido a su contenido en fosfolípidos, que interfieren en su absorción, este colesterol tiene muy poco efecto sobre el colesterol en sangre.

La falsa creencia de que la ingesta de huevos podría aumentar el riesgo cardiovascular a través de su efecto sobre los niveles de colesterol plasmático, aún no universalmente desterrada, no tiene ningún soporte científico tras los resultados de numerosos estudios que, sin excepción, han demostrado de forma concluyente que la ingesta de un huevo al día no resulta perjudicial para el perfil lipídico sanguíneo ni aumenta el riesgo de sufrir una enfermedad cardiovascular. Dos metaanálisis realizados sobre los resultados de 166 estudios clínicos así lo muestran.

Las evidencias de que la ingesta moderada de huevos no incrementa el riesgo de padecer enfermedades cardiovasculares han inducido a las principales sociedades científicas a modificar sus recomendaciones dietéticas en relación al huevo. Así, la Asociación Americana del Corazón, ya en su revisión del año 2000 declara que «el colesterol procedente de los huevos no supone un riesgo añadido para padecer enfermedades cardiovasculares, permitiendo recomendar la toma de un huevo al día, en lugar de la recomendación previa, de hasta tres huevos a la semana».

Por otra parte, los estudios epidemiológicos que han evaluado directamente la influencia de la ingesta de huevos en la enfermedad cardiovascular no han encontrado que exista ninguna asociación entre ambas. Así lo muestran el «Physicians’ Health Study», que incluyó a más de 21 000 participantes concluyendo que «el consumo de huevos fue favorable respecto a la mortalidad cardiovascular frente a los que solo los comían ocasionalmente, especialmente en lo que a pacientes diabéticos se refiere» y el«Nurses’ Health Study», que tras realizar un seguimiento a 88 757 mujeres durante 16 años concluyó que «no existe relación entre el consumo de huevos y la incidencia de enfermedad coronaria, existiendo el mismo riesgo si se toma un huevo a la semana o un huevo al día». Una revisión reciente de estudios sobre factores de la dieta y enfermedad cardiovascular confirma nuevamente estas observaciones, al no poder demostrar una relación causal entre la ingesta de huevos y la enfermedad coronaria.

Estas y otras evidencias científicas similares nos permiten desterrar de forma definitiva el infundado mito de que la ingesta moderada de huevos aumenta el riesgo de padecer enfermedades cardiovasculares.

El cambio de enfoque de la Asociación Americana del Corazón forma parte de una tendencia más amplia a la hora de plantear las recomendaciones nutricionales y alimentarias: se ha pasado de poner el foco de atención en limitar o promover la ingesta de determinados nutrientes o alimentos a contemplar la dieta globalmente.

Así, puede constatarse que existen patrones dietéticos asociados a una excelente salud cardiovascular con un alto consumo de huevos, como sucede en Japón. La adquisición de un patrón dietético saludable, como el mediterráneo, conlleva el predominio en la dieta de alimentos considerados más saludables y la presencia marginal de aquellos que, consumidos en exceso, pueden considerarse menos saludables o incluso perniciosos para la salud. La ingesta de huevo no solo no parece incrementar el riesgo cardiovascular, sino que aumenta significativamente los niveles de luteína y zeaxantina en sangre, dos carotenoides que podrían impactar positivamente en el desarrollo de la arteriosclerosis. Además, el huevo es una fuente rica en proteínas de alto valor biológico, esenciales para configurar una dieta sana. Por tanto, y en el marco del patrón de alimentación saludable conocido como Dieta Mediterránea, la ingesta de huevos también puede contribuir a la prevención de la enfermedad cardiovascular, tanto por su aporte nutricional como por sustituir a otros alimentos con mayor contenido en grasas saturadas e hidrogenadas que provocan un aumento del riesgo cardiovascular.

 El huevo tiene colesterol entre sus componentes, porque éste es necesario para la vida y el desarrollo del futuro pollito . En el pasado la creencia de que el colesterol de la dieta era causa de incremento del colesterol en sangre originó recomendaciones generalizadas de reducción del consumo de huevos, que hoy ya no se justifican con argumentos científicos.

Múltiples estudios publicados en los últimos años confirman que a pesar de su contenido en colesterol (unos 200mg/unidad) el consumo de huevos no eleva el riesgo cardiovascular en personas sanas, puesto que aporta fosfolípidos y grasas insaturadas en su composición, junto a algunas vitaminas y antioxidantes que favorecen la prevención de la arterioesclerosis. Según las más recientes recomendaciones, el consumo de hasta un huevo por día no supone factor de riesgo alguno en personas sanas con una dieta variada y un estilo de vida saludable.

En caso de alteraciones metabólicas, siga el consejo de su médico.
huevo.org.es

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                                    Stevia.

In Paraguay, it is called the   ka'a he'e, "sweet grass" in Guarani. But it's like   Stevia rebaudiana   This plant of the sunflower family and chicory has become one of the crops with the greatest potential for expansion in the world. A sweetening power equivalent to 300 times that of sugar, extracts have entered this Asteracea l increasingly market played high intensity sweeteners.

In 2013, Coca-Cola in Argentina and Chile launched its line Life sweetened with stevia. Jams, chocolates and yogurts are among the products using plant extracts as flavoring. In 2010 they came to market products containing stevia 531; in 2014, that figure had grown by 480%, according to research firm Mintel.

"You can say that stevia is already a commonly used product," said Olivier Kutz, senior director of marketing of Tereos. "There are even television ads promoting products that use stevia".Although only represents about 2% of the global market for sweeteners, according to Euromonitor, the consumption of the plant worldwide grew from 35 tonnes in 2008 to 916 by 2013, an increase of 16% per year on average.

And the expectations are even higher. "We hope that stevia continues to grow between 10% and 20% a year at least," says William Mitchell, president of the International Stevia Council, an employers' industry based in Brussels. "But we are still very small. The market for sweeteners worth 70,000 million, of which 60,000 are sugar. We alone are worth 200 million. "

To Kutz, the true potential of stevia is not calorie products. "So far it had products with sugar and sugarless" he explains. "We are seeing how it is growing a new market: products for the consumer, are a treat, but at the same time are healthy enough for the whole family can consume daily. Stevia blends very well with sugar, and is perfect for that role. "

The expansion of the market makes producers the look and the wish to meet demand. "It has grown so much that we have as supply," says Juan Barbosa, president of the Paraguayan Chamber of Stevia. "Now we have 2,000 hectares cultivated. In four or five years we want to be 10,000 and 50,000 in 2030. But almost all exported before, now domestic consumption is increasing. "

Although stevia is of South American origin, the largest producers and consumers are in Asia: more than half of the crops are in China. The fact that the plant produces three crops a year in well-drained sandy soils, where other crops do not prosperarían- has aroused the interest of producers of half the world. "It's a very efficient plant," says Mitchell. "Use less water and less land than traditional sugar crops, and its carbon dioxide footprint is much smaller".

Jeroen van Stapele points of Agristevia. This Dutch discovered the green leaf of stevia two years ago as decoration that served ice cream dessert in a restaurant. Today coordinates 50 farmers who grow about 60 acres of stevia. "We're getting requests from places like Turkey, Egypt and other African countries".

The approval of stevia as a food product remains a complex process. "Take the case of a soft dough filled donut," Kutz said. "You can put stevia on coverage, or the filling, but you can not put it in the ground because he was not authorized to bake. It is not an abstract problem, which is resistant to heat, it is a problem of the authorization. We hope the regulator will give account, in due course, give your permission. "

In addition, the plant itself has still not received approval from the health authorities in Europe and US  States because of side effects, including contraceptive properties. The large companies that market are purified from the plant, which are obtained by chemical extraction compounds. The most abundant, stevioside, have  characteristic bitter taste; why companies opt for other less common compound rebaudioside, which does not have that problem.

The question that the industry faces is: if relevant part of the plant represents, by weight, less than one thousandth of the plant, is it still stevia The answer is no. "Multinational sell synthetics" he says. "Consumers are looking for stevia is not going to believe that you sell products with stevia 1%." "We Awareness astern people about the benefits of integrated stevia consumption". "Its properties are unique in the world. If approved, we are talking about a demand far beyond the current. We speak of 100,000, 500,000 tonnes ".

Reference:

 BBC/UK

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Nootropics

                                                     NOOTROPICS.

Imagine every morning before going to work, you could take a pill that will help you stay alert, stay focused, improve your memory and increase your creativity and productivity.

That is precisely what they are doing more and more people in places like Silicon Valley-the world capital of technology industry located in the north of California where in recent years have gained popularity called nootropics.

These substances whose name derives from the Greek "nóos" (mind) and "trope" (direction) - supposedly have the ability to help us improve our mental performance, without negative side effects.

Despite the skepticism that exists between the scientific community about its effectiveness, these "cognitive enhancers" are increasingly used in the intellect prevails over any other quality competitive work environments.

Under the umbrella of nootropics include, for example, chemical compounds of the family of the racetamos like piracetam or pramiractam- and substances such as vitamins or amino acids found in many foods and plants, and can be purchased in stores nutritional supplements or herbal.

Some are used to treat the elderly who have a change in their cognitive mechanisms and suffering from diseases such as dementia or Alzheimer's drugs.

Proponents say it helps, for example, to improve memory, learning ability and concentration. UNPACKING nootropics are used for treating elderly suffering from diseases such as dementia or Alzheimer's drugs.

Often medications such as Adderall, which is prescribed to treat disorders such as hyperactivity and narcolepsy, but are also used by students as cognitive enhancers, despite producing side effects such as arrhythmia or anxiety are included.

In the case of nootropics, the Romanian Dr. Corneliu E. Giurgea established in the 70's to be conideradered as such, and can enhance cognitive abilities, should not be toxic, addictive and have significant side effects.

There is no consensus on how to operate many of the substances considered nootropics, but those who use them believe that enhance brain metabolism.

Although no official figures, in countries like the US its use has been increasing in recent years, proliferating online blogs and forums that discuss which substances have to consume and in what quantities.

With the increase in demand, they have also multiplied companies engaged in market pills containing various substances considered nootropics, such as caffeine or omega 3 fatty acids.

Some of these companies, as Nootroo and Nootrobox are   startups   Silicon Valley securing count among its investors with important names in the technology industry.

One of the things that concerns some health experts is that many users are buying through internet nootropics, unable to verify their origin and quality. 

Ome "smart drugs" like Adderall are used by students.

They also note that the effects of nootropics determined by the amounts to be taken and metabolism of who is consuming, with no studies have determined their long-term effects.

A few years ago Jesse Lawler, a computer programmer living in Los Angeles, became interested in other nootropics and smart drugs.

"When I found smart drugs I realized that could be useful for the kind of mental tasks he had to do in my daily work," says Lawler, who produces and presents the podcast   Smart Drug Smarts.

"To me I have found very useful, for example, maintain long periods of concentration. The use as tools to improve my mental state," Lawler explained. What if you could take a pill to improve your memory and increase creativity and productivity?

Lawler says that "in our society the word drug has negative connotations" and notes that the drugs he takes "have beneficial physiological effects."

"Also, try to follow a balanced diet and exercise. Never take anything that could have a negative effect on my body and especially on my brain," said Lawler, who notes that especialemnte nootropics are popular among workers in Silicon Valley and Wall Street.

"With smart drugs it is the idea that if you take to enhance your intelligence're cheating. I do not think there's anything wrong with wanting your brain work better."

Lawler recognizes that there is "confusion over which substances should take and how to take them" among users of nootropics and there are many people who are taking the opportunity to make money. "

"If you plan to buy something on the internet you have to be very careful," he warns.

Lucien Thomson, professor of neuroscience at the University of Texas at Dallas, doubts the effectiveness of many nootropics "as the studies conducted are inconclusive."

"Many of the systems we know and neurotransmitters that are involved in memory are also involved in other processes, so if you take something to improve memory are affecting other brain functions, with unpredictable effects," said Thomson in conversation with BBC world.

Some experts question the effectiveness of many nootropics.

"Besides, you can not control the amounts of these substances that people are taking. (...) Not having proper supervision and do not take into account the possible side effects can have dangerous consequences," said the expert.

"The best strategy for improving cognitive functions is to maintain good physical health. We know that brain plasticity improves with exercise. People unfortunately leads a sedentary life and hope to fix it with a pill, which is absurd."

"Also, you have to be mentally active -Making crosswords for example and maintain social interactions-and I do not mean the social-networks but talk to other people. All this has benefits for memory."

Thomson does not deny that there are some drugs that can have positive effects on memory, but notes that "most of which are marketed as nootropics have not shown beneficial effects in studies that have been carried out".

bbc/uk

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              THE OCTOPUS GENOME.

Disturbing and intelligent, unsightly but skilled in the arts of camouflage, unusual and has two eyes in his lineage and too similar to ours to ignore, the octopus is probably the closest thing to an alien we know on Earth. Reading the complete DNA Octopus  now explains the presence of all these advanced qualities in an invertebrate that, for all we know, it should not have them.

The octopus has the highest nervous system of invertebrates, along with camera-type eyes like ours, prehensile arms and complex behavior. The genome reveals that his repertoire of genes in the nervous system is typical of invertebrates, but has expanded greatly two families of genes, as it was thought that only happened in vertebrates. These serial gene duplications of development are an essential topic of evolution as a whole.

An international team coordinated by the universities of Chicago and California at Berkeley has sequenced the genome   Octopus bimaculoides,   California's two-spotted octopus, which becomes the reference genome of cephalopods, the strange family of octopus, cuttlefish and squid. Although an animal genome is rarely news in our genomes saturated days, this is enough information to have deserved   Publishing   Nature . In addition, the consortium not only describes their genes, but their expression in 12 different tissues of the animal.

Genetic harvest has been good, with hundreds of genes that exist only in cephalopods, many of which are particularly active in the brain, skin and suckers; that is, in the main organs whose peculiarity has to find an explanation.

"The octopus looks completely different from all other animals," says co-leader of the research Clifton Ragsdale, of Chicago, "and even the rest of molluscs, of which it is distinguished by its eight prehensile paws, his big brain and his intelligent problem-solving skills, the late British zoologist Martin Wells said” the octopus is an alien, in this sense, then, our article describes the first sequenced genome of an alien. "

Octopus evolutionary lineage dates back to 500 million years ago, almost to the origin of the animals as a whole. Consequence of that age, and a high capacity to adapt to change, the different species of octopus now dwell in all oceans almost any depth. They are certainly the most intelligent invertebrates. And they have 33,000 genes, compared to 20,000 of our species.

The main evolutionary vector of the extraordinary capabilities of octopus was probably the serial duplication of a few critical genes. It highlights a particularly brutal amplification of genes protocadherins, a family of essential proteins in regulating nervous system development, and interactions between neighboring neurons. Vertebrates have also expanded greatly this gene, although independently of the octopus family. In fact, until now we believed that the explosion of these genes was one of the main explanations for our superiority among creatures of evolution. And wait for the next genome. Octopuses, squid and cuttlefish, a group of mollusks are known as champions cefalópodos- camouflage in the ocean. The octopus can mimic the color and texture of a rock or a piece of coral. The squid can brighten your skin to resemble the water in which they swim. And cuttlefish can even be covered with black and white squares if a scientist gets a chessboard in your aquarium.

Cephalopods can do these shows thanks to a dense network of specialized cells that are on the skin. But before you can take a new guise, they should receive the fund that want to merge.

Cephalopods have big, powerful eyes to capture their environment. But two new studies published by   The Journal of Experimental Biology   They indicate that they have another way to sense light: the skin. It is possible that these animals have developed an eye that occupies your entire body.

When light enters the eye of a cephalopod, it crashes against retinal molecules called opsins. The collision triggers a biochemical reaction that sends an electrical signal from the eye to the brain cephalopod (we also generate a similar form of opsins in the eyes).

The skin of cephalopods contains a pigment-filled cells called chromatophores

In 2010, Roger T. Hanlon, a biologist at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and his colleagues claimed that opsins cuttlefish also made ​​in the skin . This discovery raised the tantalizing possibility that animals could use the skin to sense light as much as they do their eyes. Hanlon joined Thomas W. Cronin, visual ecologist at the University of Maryland in Baltimore County, and his colleagues to study it more closely.

The skin of cephalopods contains a pigment-filled cells known as chromatophores, which are surrounded by muscles and nerve endings. When the muscles contract, extend the chromatophores, which allows them to absorb more light and gives new colors to the animals. Cephalopods have chromatophores to 16,000 per square centimeter of skin, which they use as a kind of screen HD video.

Hanlon, Cronin and his colleagues developed precise molecular probes that could be used to locate the opsins in the skin.   They found that, cuttlefish,   opsins occur only in chromatophores. So was the calamari.Similarly, scientists   They discovered other enzymes in the skin of animals that are present in the eye, which allow opsins transmit light signals to the nervous system.

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These studies convinced scientists that the cephalopods could have developed a system to perceive light, and perhaps the color, directly through the skin. Then they removed pieces of animal skin and lit to see if they could get an answer.

For more times they tried, they failed. But two other scientists were luckier. Hanlon study inspired Todd H. Oakley, a biologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Desmond M. Ramirez, a graduate student, to join the search for skin opsins. Instead of squid or cuttlefish, octopus decided to study, they collected marsh located near the campus.

The scientists found that octopuses, like cuttlefish, have opsins in the skin. But instead of producing them in chromatophores, octopuses just made ​​opsins in a hair-like nerve endings that occur in the skin.

Oakley Ramirez and skin fragments cut octopus to check whether they respond to light. When scientists left dark skin or subjected to a dim red light, he remained pale. But when the light lit, the chromatophores were expanding rapidly, darkening the skin in seconds.

"We did not expect such a quick reaction," says Oakley, who suspects that light impacts skin opsins, which stimulate neurons to transmit information to neighboring chromatophores. Oakley Ramirez and skin exposed to light of various colors to test your sensitivity. The blue light was triggering the fastest response. Opsins octopus eye are also particularly sensitive to such light.

"I am very happy that I have achieved," says Hanlon on studies of Oakley and Ramirez. "And I feel a little envious," he adds. Their findings have encouraged try again. Although it succeeds with cuttlefish and squid, yet no one can say exactly how animals use the light they capture opsins to control their skin color. "It's a very strange story," says Hanlon, "but our animals are also"

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