![]() ![]() Researchers say the finding could help humans-but not in the exact same way. We need to look at many of them and how they synergize.” “If we want to look for an extension of healthspan, we cannot just focus on one pathway. “The most interesting thing is that it’s not a single molecular pathway… It is a combination of many of them,” Jan Karlseder, a molecular biologist and director of the Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research at the Salk Institute, tells the Wall Street Journal ’s Ginger Adams Otis and Alyssa Lukpat. These differences may be key to the jellyfish’s immortality. “Immortal jellyfish” had mutations that preserved telomeres, or DNA sequences that protect the end of a chromosome and typically shorten with age, New Scientist writes. The authors also found differences in several other genes, including those associated with replication and stem cell population. dohrnii to produce more restorative proteins. Compared to its relative, researchers found, the “immortal jellyfish” has double the amount of genes that repair and protect DNA, writes Jason P. rubra, a related jellyfish species that ages normally. dohrnii may succumb to a predator, it can thwart dying of old age. Over the next day and a half, this blob becomes a new polyp, which can then form more medusae. From there, multiple young jellyfish bud off from the polyp and turn into medusae, or adults.īut here’s the difference: When an adult “immortal jellyfish” is damaged or stressed, instead of dying, it absorbs its own tentacles and becomes a blob that settles to the sea floor, per London's Natural History Museum. It finds a hard surface to attach to, such as a rock or shell, and matures into a branching, plant-like polyp. ![]() dohrnii begins its life as a free-floating larva. Like a typical jellyfish, the “immortal” T. ![]() Researchers say their work could help promote health for aging humans. In the paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of researchers from the University of Oviedo in Spain mapped the genetic sequence of the jellyfish, revealing “key molecular mechanisms behind rejuvenation of T. But in a new study, researchers looked to the animal’s genes to find out how it achieves this exceptional feat. “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, tells Reuters’ Julie Steenhuysen. The deep-sea creature’s life cycle could theoretically be repeated indefinitely, earning this species, called Turritopsis dohrnii, a nickname: the “immortal jellyfish.” After reaching sexual maturity, this jellyfish can revert to its juvenile stage and mature again-a feat that would be akin to a butterfly turning back into a caterpillar, then metamorphosing again into a butterfly. In oceans across the globe, a tiny jellyfish species-smaller than the nail on your pinky finger-displays remarkable death-defying abilities. ![]()
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