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Squid, like most other cephalopods, are quick. They move by sucking water into their mantle, squeezing the mantle and pushing the water out — basically, they’re jet propulsion-powered cephalopods. Partly controlling this action is a very large axon in the squid’s nervous system called the “squid giant axon,” which are long cable-like motor neurons that run from a specialized nerve bundle called a ganglion to the muscles in the mantle.  Unlike the more complicated nervous systems in vertebrates, which are usually made up of billions of small neurons and axons, the squid giant axon can be up to 1.5 mm in diameter (though they’re typically around 0.5mm), making them an ideal way to study cellular neuroscience. 

Doryteuthis pealeii, often called the “Woods Hole squid” by locals, is a longstanding model for cellular neuroscience, beginning with Nobel Prize winning research on nerve impulses in the 1950s. Studies with Doryteuthis pealeii have led to major advances in neurobiology, including description of the fundamental mechanisms of neurotransmission.

At the MBL, the longfin squid is used as a model organism to understand adaptive coloration, development, vision, and behavior. Like other cephalopods, Doryteuthis pealeii has the ability to extensively recode its own genetic information within messenger RNA. In summer of 2020, scientists at the MBL used CRISPR Cas-9 to knock out a target gene in Doryteuthis pealeii — a first for any cephalopod.