The secret of immortality in a Jelly Fish

From time immemorial, humans have believed that one of the most fundamental laws of nature is– if you are born, then you must die, as simple as that. Every famous philosopher – starting from Socrates to Aristotle had agreed upon it. William Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet had written, “Well, we were born to die.” But in year 1988, a German marine biologist Christian Sommer, discovered something that proved all of them wrong. One fine morning when Sommer went to swim in the Italian Rivera with his plankton collecting net – he found a tiny obscure species of Hydrozoa amongst the many he had collected, now known as Turritopsis dohrnii. Turritopsis dohrnii, also known as the immortal jelly fish, is a species of small, biologically immortal jelly fish found worldwide in temperate to tropic waters.

He kept this organism in a petri dish to study it’s life cycle, but he was rather surprised when he found their behaviour peculiar. Once the Turritopis dohrnii grew old and reached at the end of it’s life cycle he was potentially able to revert back to it’s previous younger life stages. In fact, it appeared to grow younger and younger until it reached at the beginning and then started the life cycle all over again. In short – it could cheat itself out of death! Something that’s inevitable for all others.

An excellent Hitchhiker

In addition to this, Turritopis dohrnii is also an aggressive invader and feeds upon other jelly fish species at a high pace and have long been known to hitch rides around the world, along the ships. Thus, researchers have depicted this immortal jelly fish as an “excellent hitchhiker,” which can survive long trips on ships.

Life cycle of T.dohrnii

Like all jelly fish T.Dohrnii begins its life cycle as a planula larva and get attached to the oceanic floor, followed by which it differentiates into a highly branched polyp. From these polyps the jelly fish or the medusa are budded off to live a free swimming life and grows to become sexually mature. This process of reverting back to previous life stages occurs through Transdifferentiation.

The medusa stage of Turritopis under stress sinks to the bottom of the ocean floor and attaches itself there. The bell and tentacles get reabsorbed and the organism folds into iself, followed by which stolons starts growing out of it, which then lengthens and becomes a polyp. The new polyp produces new medusas, and the process begins all over again.

What is Transdifferentiation ?
Transdifferentiation is a process through which one specialized somatic cell can be transformed into a completely different kind of specialized cell. Like in jelly fish, an adult cell, one that is specialized for a particular tissue, can become an entirely different type of specialized cell.

Future prospects

Currently, transdiffrentiation is only used in disease modelling and drug discovery, but in future it can also be used for gene therapy and as a regenerative medicine.

But to use it’s incredible mechanism of rejuvenation for our own benefit, first we will need to understand why and how such a transformation comes about within this organism and the basic process that lies behind it. In fact, thousands of researchers from all over the globe are still trying to work out an explanation for those questions. The National Institutes of Health has awarded $1.26 million research grant to study such Hydrozoans.

Kevin J. Peterson, a molecular paleobiologist is studying the micro RNAs (miRNA) in the jelly fishes. miRNA are genetic materials that acts as molecular switches of the genes. According to him the secret of immortality and the cure to cancer can both lie in these microscopic oceanic creatures.

Take your call!!

One must not forget here that, immortality isn’t our primary goal to achieve for human welfare and advancement. In fact, according to some scientists, increasing human longevity is a rather futile exercise and an ecological impossibility. Thus, even though the immortal jelly fish won’t be making us immortal ourselves but shall definitely provide us with some answers that would help to improve the quality of life, especially in it’s final stages.
The lesson which we should learn from these tiny organisms is that we should keep going with the flow and must have the potential to redirect our life when its necessary.

References:

• American Museum of natural history
• The new York times magazine