Can a Jellyfish Unlock the Secret of Immortality?

In 1988 a marine biology student, Christian Sommer, discovered Turritopsis dohrnii, or more commonly known as the immortal jellyfish. Throughout his studies of this specimen he observed that the organism was incapable of death. The organism seemed to reverse its age until it reaches its earliest stage of life. 
Photo courtesy of the NewYorkTimes.com

In 1988 a marine biology student, Christian Sommer, discovered Turritopsis dohrnii, or more commonly known as the immortal jellyfish. Throughout his studies of this specimen he observed that the organism was incapable of death. The organism seemed to reverse its age until it reaches its earliest stage of life.

It is known that this rejuvenation is caused by environmental stress or physical assault. An unusual process, transdifferentiation, occurs within these organisms where one type of cell is converted into another. Turritopsis go through two main stages of life, the polyp and medusa. A polyp contains stalks that branch out and end in buds. Medusas are bell shaped with dangling tentacles. These characteristics describe most hydrozoans, yet the immortal jellyfish sink to the bottom of the ocean floor and the bodies fold in on themselves. The bell-dome reabsorbs the tentacles and continues to degenerate until it is ultimately a blob. An outer shell is formed over the gelatinous blob after a few days and root-like parts shoot out. These stolons lengthen and become polyps, which produce new medusas. An adult medusa is about the size of a fingernail.

The reverse aging process is not fully understood because it is difficult to attain good hydroid experts and the genus is difficult to culture in a laboratory. One consistent scientist, Shin Kubota, is dedicated to culturing polyps in his lab in Japan. Kubota said, “Once we determine how the jellyfish rejuvenates itself, we should achieve very great things. My opinion is that we will evolve and become immortal ourselves.”

It was only until recently that the ways of this jellyfish may be valuable in new discoveries with human immortality. Even though jellyfish have no brains, heart, and pass food and waste through the anus, it was found that both jellyfish and humans are very similar. Kevin J. Peterson, a molecular paleobiologist who worked with the study, said, “There’s a shocking amount of genetic similarity between jellyfish and human beings. From a genetic perspective, apart from the fact that we have two genome duplication  we look like a damn jellyfish.” More and more information about these miraculous creatures is being discovered, the relation to human beings cannot simply be certain until further research is accomplished.

Blog Post Author: Megan Giec from Section 124-21

Work Cited

Rich, Nathaniel. "Can a Jellyfish Unlock the Secret of Immortality?" The New York Times. N.p., 28 Nov. 2012. Web. 4 Mar. 2013. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/magazine/can-a-jellyfish-unlock-the-secret-of-immortality.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0>.