Octopus and cuttlefish suckers evolved by repurposing ancient developmental genes

Researchers from the University of Tokyo investigated the embryonic development of cephalopods and mollusks to understand the evolution of specialized arms and suckers in octopus and cuttlefish. They discovered that while appendage patterning genes were active in developing arms, suckers expressed a different gene, Ets1, linked to early mollusk development. This suggests that cephalopod suckers evolved through the repurposing of ancient developmental genes.

Originally published by gnews