Squid discovery could revolutionise molecular engineering

Cephalopods are fascinating creatures. Possessed of great intelligence of a form entirely alien to humans, octopus and squid have physical abilities that often defy belief. Among these is their ability to change their appearance thanks to structures in their highly complex skin that control colour and texture. Studies of the mechanisms behind these transformations from researchers at the University of California in Santa Barbara (UCSB)  may have profound implications for molecular engineering, and may even point the way towards treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.

Daniel Morse, an emeritus professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology at UCSB, has been studying Doryteuthisa opalescens, otherwise known as the opalescent inshore squid or the California market squid (because as well as being fascinating, it is also abundant and delicious). These animals take the colour control ability of cephalopods to an extreme level: they can continuously tune their colour and reflectivity, allowing them to both communicate with each other and to hide in the open ocean. They have a variety of mechanisms to do this, but an important contribution is made by proteins in their skin called reflectins, which control reflective pigment cells called iridocytes.