Although the camera eye of the octopus is very similar to that of humans, phylogenetic and embryological analyses have suggested that their camera eyes have been acquired independently. It has been known as a typical example of convergent evolution. To study the molecular basis of convergent evolution of camera eyes, we conducted a comparative analysis of gene expression in octopus and human ca...

The Octopus method packages a rich set of mostly graphical object-oriented (OO) modeling techniques that facilitate the creation of abstract, well-structured models of structure and behavior along a variety of modeling perspectives. The techniques provide good tools for managing the complexity in reactive, embedded systems. On the other hand, the lack of precise semantics for the modeling notat...

MOTIVATION As alpha-helical transmembrane proteins constitute roughly 25% of a typical genome and are vital parts of many essential biological processes, structural knowledge of these proteins is necessary for increasing our understanding of such processes. Because structural knowledge of transmembrane proteins is difficult to attain experimentally, improved methods for prediction of structural...

At present, the production of merobenthic octopuses with a post-eclosion planktonic phase is a great challenge for global aquaculture. So far, juveniles from only four species have been reported to have been obtained under controlled rearing conditions: Octopus vulgaris, Octopus joubini, Enteroctopus dofleini and Robsonella fontaniana, the only Chilean species. Robsonella fontaniana (Orbigny, 1...

Marine invertebrates exhibit both chemokinesis and chemotaxis phenomena, induced in most cases by the release of water-borne peptides or pheromones. In mollusks, several peptides released during egg-laying improve both male attraction and mating. Unlike other cephalopods, Octopus vulgaris adopts an indirect internal fertilization strategy. We here report on the identification and characterizati...

Auditory nerve fibers are the major source of excitation to the three groups of principal cells of the ventral cochlear nucleus (VCN), bushy, T stellate, and octopus cells. Shock-evoked excitatory postsynaptic currents (eEPSCs) in slices from mice showed systematic differences between groups of principal cells, indicating that target cells contribute to determining pre- and postsynaptic propert...

Octopus arms house 200-300 independently controlled suckers that can alternately afford an octopus fine manipulation of small objects and produce high adhesion forces on virtually any non-porous surface. Octopuses use their suckers to grasp, rotate and reposition soft objects (e.g., octopus eggs) without damaging them and to provide strong, reversible adhesion forces to anchor the octopus to ha...

OBJECTIVE To determine in vivo efficacy of radiofrequency ablation (RFA) in porcine liver by using 15-gauge Octopus® (15-G Octopus®) electrodes to create a large coagulation. MATERIALS AND METHODS A total of 18 coagulations were created by using a 180-W generator and 15-G Octopus® electrodes during laparotomy, performed in 14 pigs. Coagulation necrosis was created in the pig livers by the use...

The first encounter with a live male blanket octopus, Tremoctopus violaceus Chiaie, 1830, illustrates the most extreme example of sexual size-dimorphism in a non-microscopic animal. Females attain sizes of up to 2 m long—almost 2 orders of magnitude larger than the 2.4-cm-long male. Weight ratios between the sexes are at least 10 000:1 and are likely to reach 40 000:1. Sexual selection and the ...

The dynamic model of the octopus arm described in the first paper of this 2-part series was used here to investigate the neural strategies used for controlling the reaching movements of the octopus arm. These are stereotypical extension movements used to reach toward an object. In the dynamic model, sending a simple propagating neural activation signal to contract all muscles along the arm prod...