The secret to eternal life, as it turns out, is not just living a really, really long time. These are the sources and citations used to research Immortal Jellyfish, Turritopsis Dohrnii. Turritopsis dohrnii (Cnidaria, Hydrozoa, Hydroidolina, Anthoathecata) is the only known metazoan that is capable of reversing its life cycle via morph rejuvenation from the adult medusa stage to the juvenile polyp stage. The immortal jellyfish (as it is better known popularly) propagate and then, faced with … Medusae of Turritopsis dohrnii undergo reverse development in response to physical damage, adverse environmental conditions, or aging.
future endeavours - medical research? This bibliography was generated on Cite This For Me on Friday, April 24, 2015 During the metamorphosis, cell transdifferentiation occurs. Sommer was conducting research on hydrozoans, small invertebrates that, depending on their stage in the life cycle, resemble either a jellyfish or a soft coral. However, Turritopsis nutricula , which is a part of the same class (Hydrozoa) also has the ability to revert, so it is possible that their reproductive system is similar (5). Although reprogramming works to reverse age of a single cell, there is also an example of a similar type of reprogramming working to reverse the age of an entire organism.
A lot more research and researchers are needed in order to fully understand miRNAs in this jellyfish and how they could be the key to unlocking the cure to many forms of cancer. However, this research is very recent and was only published in 2014. Maria Pia Miglietta, an assistant professor in the Department of Marine Biology at Texas A&M’s Galveston campus, received a prestigious Early Concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to study cell regeneration and gene sequencing within a very special jellyfish, the Turritopsis dohrnii, or T. dohrnii.
The jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii uses reprogramming to become biologically immortal. Turritopsis dohrnii is now officially known as the only immortal creature. Here, we present a complete mitochondrial (mt) genome sequence of T. dohrnii, which harbors genes for 13 proteins, two transfer RNAs, and two ribosomal RNAs. Using phylogenetic analysis techniques scientists established that Turritopsis nutricula is the closet relative of Turritopsis dohrnii. As there hasn't been an extensive amount of research on this species of jellyfish, it's difficult to know for sure how Turritopsis dohrnii reproduces. Research in this field and the link between turritopsis nutricula and cancer is limited and still in its beginning stages. Senescent, weakened or damaged medusae transform into a cluster of poorly differentiated cells (known as the cyst stage), which metamorphose back into a preceding life cycle stage, the polyp.
It’s all about maturity, or rather, the lack of it.