Epigenetic DNA Methylation Mediating Early Development: Effect of Essential Fatty Acids Enriched Diet.

The common octopus, , is a good candidate for aquaculture but a sustainable production is still unviable due to an almost total mortality during the paralarvae stage. DNA methylation regulates gene expression in the eukaryotic genome, and has been shown to exhibit plasticity throughout life cycle, changing profiles from paralarvae to adult stages. This pattern of methylation could be sensitive to small alterations in nutritional and environmental conditions during the species early development, thus impacting on its health, growth and survival.