Discover the Immortal Jellyfish: Secrets to Eternal Youth Revealed?
Turritopsis dohrnii, like all jellyfish, starts as a planula larva from a fertilized egg. After initially swimming, it settles on the seabed, forming a colony of polyps that eventually give rise to genetically identical adult jellyfish. These adult jellyfish are small, transparent, and measure about 4.5 mm (0.18 inches) across, with a red stomach and up to 90 white tentacles.
What sets Turritopsis dohrnii apart is its remarkable ability to revert back to a polyp state in response to damage or starvation, essentially rejuvenating itself. This phenomenon has earned it the nickname "the immortal jellyfish." The process, known as transdifferentiation, is of great interest to scientists for its potential applications in medicine, especially in stem cell research.
Recent genome research on this jellyfish compared it to the genome of another jellyfish species, Turritopsis rubra, which lacks this longevity ability. As a result, molecular mechanisms responsible for Turritopsis dohrnii's longevity have been identified.
These jellyfish effectively combat cell damage caused by free radicals through the activation of several antioxidants such as thioredoxin and glutathione reductase. One of these antioxidants also counteracts the glycation process.
Turritopsis dohrnii possesses an active gene called PSEN1, which encodes presenilin-1, known for its protective role in the nervous system and its association with the risk of Alzheimer's disease in humans. Presenilin-1 also plays a role in mitochondrial renewal.
In this long-lived jellyfish, telomeres, the DNA's end segments associated with aging, shorten more slowly than in regular jellyfish, linked to more efficient DNA repair and replication. Additionally, Turritopsis dohrnii has a higher number of copies of genes related to these processes.
The research also revealed improvements in molecular mechanisms and pathways related to stem cell function, transcription regulation, and the cell cycle in Turritopsis dohrnii compared to Turritopsis rubra.
This study is significant as the genes and molecular mechanisms discovered in Turritopsis dohrnii are linked to aging protection and are also present in humans.
