{"id":156463,"date":"2019-11-15T08:25:11","date_gmt":"2019-11-15T13:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=156463"},"modified":"2019-11-14T16:14:58","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T21:14:58","slug":"not-adorable-squid-open-new-antimicrobial-drug-possibilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2019\/11\/not-adorable-squid-open-new-antimicrobial-drug-possibilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Only Adorable: Squid Open Up New Antimicrobial Drug Possibilities"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you like viewing pictures of adorable animals on the internet, it\u2019s possible you\u2019ve run across the Hawaiian bobtail squid, a glowing, squishy, golf-ball-sized cephalopod that prompted the Ocean Conservancy to call it the \u201c<\/span>cutest thing in the ocean<\/a>.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But this formidable model organism is a heavy hitter in the biology world, especially at UConn, where it helps scientists understand symbioses, including <\/span>bioluminescence<\/a>, <\/span>immune responses<\/a> and how <\/span>species co-evolve<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Now, Spencer Nyholm of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Marcy Balunas of the School of Pharmacy have nailed down what was before a mere hypothesis: This squid harbors dozens of species of symbiotic bacteria in a specialized organ, with the purpose of protecting its eggs from fungal infections. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In short, they\u2019ve evolved to grow medicine inside their bodies \u2013 and they\u2019re great new pharmaceutical leads. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a group that hasn\u2019t been studied for its antimicrobial properties, or for producing drugs,\u201d says Nyholm, associate professor in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting that this system could lead to antifungal agents.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Although scientists have studied the squid \u2013 their scientific name is Euprymna scolopes <\/i>\u2013 for more than 30 years, that\u2019s mostly been to understand how they light up, glowing in different intensities. Nyholm was among the scientists to uncover the details of the bacterial symbiosis that leads to their sophisticated camouflage. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But after starting an <\/span>NSF-funded collaboration<\/a> with Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Marcy Balunas, Nyholm began studying the squid\u2019s specialized reproductive gland, called the accessory nidamental gland, whose function was until then the subject of speculation. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Balunas describes the gland as the size of a pinky fingernail, with thousands of tendrils that Nyholm says act \u201clike pastry bags\u201d to pump bacteria into the jelly coat that\u2019s layered over each of the mother\u2019s 100 to 300 eggs before she lays them on the seafloor. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Researchers
Researchers Marcy Balunas and Spencer Nyholm with a photo of a bobtail squid on Nov. 12, 2019. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In laboratory tests, Nyholm\u2019s team, led by former graduate students Allison Kerwin and Andrea Suria, showed that if the bacterial coating is absent, the growing squid eggs succumb to fungal infections. Balunas\u2019 group made chemical extracts from the bacteria and showed that they contained antimicrobial properties that suppressed not only squid-related fungus, but also Candida albicans<\/i>, which can cause serious and fatal infection in immunocompromised people, such as those with HIV or cancer. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSo many people are affected\u201d by Candida infections, says Balunas. \u201cWe know these chemicals have a biological purpose, and they could lead us to drug discovery.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Host-microbe interactions are becoming an increasingly important focus of research, says Nyholm, because the human microbiota is known to be a major contributor to health and to disease. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

There is a dearth of treatments for chronic fungal infections, he says, and the fact that many squid and cuttlefish have this organ opens up a new avenue for antimicrobial research.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He notes that the work would not have been possible had not two scientists studying in different fields come together to solve a problem. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a culmination of many years of research, and the great collaboration we have between our laboratories,\u201d notes Nyholm. \u201cI love my collaboration with Marcy.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Nyholm hopes to continue to explore the basic biology of this model organism not only to further optimize its use for pharmaceuticals, but because of his interest in the foundational knowledge of a little-studied animal. Despite being known in the literature for more than a hundred years \u2013 and perhaps even being <\/span><\/span>noted by Aristotle<\/a> \u2013 science only now knows the function of this highly evolved organ.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For example, there is preliminary evidence that each of the organ\u2019s hundreds of tendrils harbors only one kind of bacteria. Why is that, Nyholm asks? If we know, we might be able to think further about the different types of bacteria that live in the human gut, on our hands, and in our mouth. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe can look holistically at each of these populations and see how they are different,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing, and exciting, that in this era of microbiome research there are still so many unknowns.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Read about Nyholm and Balunas\u2019 findings in their <\/span><\/span>paper in the journal mBio<\/a>. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The glowing Hawaiian bobtail squid is more than a pretty face: New research shows that its symbiotic bacteria create antifungal compounds, which may be of use in drug discovery. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":156464,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2226,2231,2076,1864,2225],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1860],"class_list":["post-156463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clas","category-health-well-being","category-research","category-pharm","category-uconn-storrs"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 13:53:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156466,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156463\/revisions\/156466"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/156464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156463"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=156463"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=156463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}