It ’s firmly not to get laid octopuses – they ’re eccentric - sounding , hugelyintelligent , and get up to plenty ofshenanigans . That makes what happens to them all the more tragic ; after the female person of some octopus species set their ball , they stop eat , slowly withering away until they die . The trigger of this process , known as the death volute , has long amaze researchers , but it seems the answer has now been unveil .
Scientists back in the 1970s had linked the death helix to the octopusoptic gland , after surgically remove it precede to octopus go on to inhabit even after lay bollock . Dr Jerome Wodinsky , who carried out the research , told theWashington Postat the metre that he believed that the process was controlled by a endocrine secrete by the visual gland .
Fast forward to 2022 , and it turns out Wodinksy was at least partially right . Researchers with the University of Chicago congeal to analyse the chemicals secreted by the maternal devilfish optic secretory organ , focusing in on cholesterol and sterol hormones . late studies by the team evoke these particle could act a role .
The researchers discovered that the optic secreter in maternaloctopusesexperiences a important slip in cholesterin metabolism , leading to equally drastic changes in sex hormone internal secretion yield . This occurs via three different pathways , all of which involve cholesterin in some way and appear to result to the death spiral behavior .
“ What ’s strike is that they go through this progression of changes where they seem to go crazy right before they pass away , ” say sketch author Clifton Ragsdale in astatement . “ Maybe that ’s two cognitive operation , maybe it ’s three or four . Now , we have at least three obviously sovereign pathways to steroid hormone that could account for the multiplicity of essence that these beast show . ”
One of these footpath effect in increased floor of 7 - dehydrocholesterol ( 7 - DHC ) , a predecessor molecule to cholesterol . In humans , a mutation in the enzyme that ’s involved in this rebirth leads to a genetic disorderliness that can involve insistent self - combat injury . That make this finding in particular pertinent , as some octopus displayself - mutilationbehaviors during their death volute .
While the study provides long - awaited insight into how the death coil is control , it remain that this tragical process does n’t occur in everyoctopusspecies . principal study source Z. Yan Wang is now looking to the ocular gland of one such species , the less Pacific foray octopus , to discover why it does n’t ego - destruct after facts of life .
“ The optic secretor exists in all other subdued - bodied cephalopod mollusk , and they have such divergent procreative strategies , ” say Wang . “ It ’s such a diminutive gland and it ’s underappreciated , and I remember it ’s go to be exciting to explore how it contributes to such a great variety of life history trajectories in cephalopods . ”
The field is print inCurrent Biology .
