Scientists based in Spain have unlocked the genetic code of the “immortal jellyfish”. They hope this will unlock the secret to their unique longevity, and find new clues to human aging. The “immortal jellyfish” is a sea creature capable of repeatedly turning into a juvenile.
In their study, published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Maria Pascual-Torner, Victor Quesada and colleagues at the University of Oviedo mapped the genetic sequence of Turritopsis dohrnii. This the only known species of jellyfish able to repeatedly revert back into a larval stage after sexual reproduction.
T. dohrnii goes through a two-part life cycle like other jellyfish. They live on the sea floor during an asexual phase, where the main idea is to stay alive during times of food scarcity. When conditions are just right, jellyfish reproduce sexually.
Although many types of jellyfish have some capacity to reverse aging and revert to a larval stage, most lose this ability once they reach sexual maturity, the authors wrote. This is not the case for Turritopsis dohrnii.
“We’ve known about this species being able to do a little evolutionary trickery for maybe 15-20 years,” Monty Graham, a jellyfish expert and director of the Florida Institute of Oceanography, who was not involved in the research, told British media house BBC.
What the research team found is that Turritopsis dohrnii has variations in its genome that may make it better at copying and repairing DNA. This variety of jellyfish also appear to be better at maintaining the ends of chromosomes called telomeres. In humans and other species, telomere length has been shown to shorten with age.
Graham said the research has no immediate commercial value.
“We can’t look at it as, hey, we are going to harvest these jellyfish and turn it into a skin cream,” he said. It has more to do with understanding the processes and protein functionality that helps these jellyfish cheat death.
“It’s one of those papers that I do think will open up a door to a new line of study that’s worth pursuing,” he added
