Sleep has been observed in several invertebrate species, but its presence in marine invertebrates is relatively unexplored. Rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep has only been observed in vertebrates. We investigated whether the cuttlefish Sepia officinalis displays sleep-like states. We find that cuttlefish exhibit frequent quiescent periods that are homeostatically regulated, satisfying two criteria...

results the present study revealed that the sobt and sop extracts showed in vitro bactericidal activity against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. furthermore, administration of sobt and sop increased the rats’ survival rates by 66.7% and 83.33%, respectively, as compared to the untreated clp-septic rats. treatment of the clp-septic rats with sobt and sop significantly alleviated alterat...

Polar lipids of the cephalopods Eledone moschata, Sepia officinalis and Todarodes sagittatus mantle, represent 50.5%, 66.1% and 74.2% of wet tissue respectively. On the other hand the polar lipids of these three species of cephalopods constitute of 80.8%, 94.8% and 93.7% of phospholipids, respectively. The main phospholipids identified were phosphatidylcholine (52.2, 51.3 and 58.4% of total pho...

Around the posterior pallial vessels in Sepia officinalis a ball-shaped structure has been found which is evidently an accessory organ of the circulatory system. It has also been observed in Loligo forbesi, but not in the two decapods examined, Eledone cirrhosa and Octopus vulgaris. The following description is based on the study of Sepia. In an account of the nerves supplying the accessory org...

This article comprises an up-dated review of the processes influencing the distribution and abundance of common cuttlefish Sepia officinalis, the interactions between the species and the main parameters of the environment in which it lives and its trophic, demographic and behavioural ecology.

The ink gland of the cuttlefish Sepia officinalis has traditionally been regarded as a convenient model system for investigating melanogenesis. This gland has been shown to contain a variety of melanogenic enzymes including tyrosinase, a dopachrome-rearranging enzyme and peroxidase. However, whether and to what extent these enzymes co-localize in the melanogenic compartments and interact is an ...

The cephalopod molluscs are a group of invertebrates that occupy a wide range of oceanic photic environments. They are an ideal group of animals, therefore, in which to study the evolution of rhodopsin. The cDNA sequence of the rhodopsin gene of the cuttlefish Sepia officinalis (L.) (Sub-class Coleoidea, Order Sepiida) is presented, together with an analysis of the structure of the gene. A prol...

This paper provides the first detailed description of the time courses of light-evoked pupillary constriction for two species of cephalopods, Sepia officinalis (a cuttlefish) and Eledone cirrhosa (an octopus). The responses are much faster than hitherto reported, full contraction in Sepia taking less than 1 s, indicating it is among the most rapid pupillary responses in the animal kingdom. We a...

Cultured retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells can phagocytize large foreign particles. Heterogeneous melanin aggregates from Sepia officinalis, a species of cuttlefish, were fed to cultured human RPE cells to produce cells laden with Sepia melanin. Blue light-induced apoptosis (BLIA) assays were performed by flow cytometry on parallel cultures consisting of RPE cells isolated from independent...