The Editor of Itself

On the sixth morning, Chiara made coffee for both of them and sat down beside the tank. Pasta was hanging upside down from a corner of the glass. Her body bell pulsed gently. Her arms drifted around her like a slow flower.

Šiesty deň ráno Chiara pripravila kávu pre obe a posadila sa vedľa akvária. Pasta visela dolu hlavou z rohu skla. Jej telo sa jemne vlnilo. Ruky sa jej pomaly pohybovali okolo nej ako kvetina.

"There is one more thing I want to tell you," Chiara said, "and I want to tell it slowly, because it is the strangest thing about octopuses I know."

"Je ešte jedna vec, ktorú ti chcem povedať," povedala Chiara, "a chcem to povedať pomaly, pretože je to najzvláštnejšia vec o chobotniciach, ktorú poznám."

Polly perched on the rim.

Polly sa usadila na okraji.

"Octopuses can edit their own RNA in real time," Chiara said. "No other animal does this at the rate they do."

"Chobotnice dokážu upravovať svoju vlastnú RNA v reálnom čase," povedala Chiara. "Žiadne iné zviera to nerobí tak často ako ony."

DNA is the long-term blueprint of an animal. It does not change much in a lifetime. RNA is the working copy. The cell makes RNA from DNA when it needs to build a protein. In most animals, the RNA matches the DNA exactly.

DNA je dlhodobý plán zvieraťa. Počas života sa veľmi nemení. RNA je pracovná kópia. Bunka vytvára RNA z DNA, keď potrebuje postaviť proteín. U väčšiny zvierat RNA presne zodpovedá DNA.

In octopuses, the RNA does not match. As the RNA is being made, the cell rewrites parts of it. Most of these edits happen in the parts that build the nervous system.

U chobotníc RNA nezodpovedá. Keď sa RNA vytvára, bunka prepisuje jej časti. Väčšina týchto úprav sa deje v častiach, ktoré budujú nervový systém.

"Why?" Chiara said. "RNA editing is reversible. DNA mutation is not. An octopus can adjust its nervous system in response to the temperature of the water or the chemistry of its food. It tunes its own brain. The cost is that the species itself has not been able to evolve much. They paid for short-term flexibility with long-term stability."

"Prečo?" povedala Chiara. "Úprava RNA je reverzibilná. Mutácia DNA nie je. Chobotnica môže prispôsobiť svoj nervový systém v reakcii na teplotu vody alebo chemické zloženie potravy. Ladí si vlastný mozog. Cena je, že druh sám sa nemohol veľmi vyvíjať. Zaplatili za krátkodobú flexibilitu dlhodobou stabilitou."

Pasta drifted. Her skin near the eyes flickered through soft pinks and pale browns.

Pasta sa vznášala. Koža blízko očí preblikávala jemnými ružovými a bledohnedými odtieňmi.

"Each individual octopus," Chiara said, "is a slightly different animal from every other one, in a way that you and I and other parrots are not. The same DNA, but the working machinery is built fresh, every life, for that water and that food."

"Každá jednotlivá chobotnica," povedala Chiara, "je trochu iné zviera ako každá iná, spôsobom, akým ty a ja a iné papagáje nie sme. Rovnaká DNA, ale pracovný stroj sa stavia nanovo, každý život, pre tú vodu a tú potravu."

Polly thought about her own brain. It had been built once, the way most brains are built, and was now simply hers. She did not envy Pasta the flexibility. But she liked very much knowing that animals like Pasta existed.

Polly premýšľala o svojom vlastnom mozgu. Bol postavený raz, tak ako väčšina mozgov, a teraz bol jednoducho jej. Nezávidela Paste flexibilitu. Ale veľmi sa jej páčilo vedieť, že existujú zvieratá ako Pasta.