Instead, differences in composition between warm-water and cold-water ion channels were the result of a phenomenon called RNA editing, in which special enzymes alter the structure of the RNA messenger, and thus of the final protein.

ECONOMIST: A hitherto-unknown way to evolve

Though RNA editing has been observed before, in animals ranging from humans to nematode worms, this is the first time an edit has been tied to a clear evolutionary difference caused by a feature of the environment in this case ambient temperature.

ECONOMIST: A hitherto-unknown way to evolve