The immortal jellyfish
The myth of gaining immortality has been a spectacle in the media for decades. Whether through fairytales or reverse aging regimens, people are fascinated with the idea of never growing old. Although this goal is impossible for humans, a familiar creature may have already found eternal life.
Dubbed the “immortal jellyfish”, the Turritopsis Dohrnii existed far before the dinosaurs became extinct 66 million years ago. They are known to be a fascinating variety of fish with an unorthodox lifespan. What makes this species special has nothing to do with incredibly long life, but rather a biological process of cheating death.
Their life plays out in five stages, beginning as a fertilized egg spawned by their medusa (an adult jellyfish). Following is the planula phase, in which the egg becomes a larva, where it appears as a microscopic worm and can roam about freely. The planula will then swim down to find a solid surface (such as a seabed), where it will develop a digestive system and feed itself. The new polyp will reproduce asexually by cloning itself to produce a small colony.
From there, the polyp will form a new set of muscles and nerves and become an ephyra, an entity that can grow, feed, and swim independently. To complete their form, they will grow into a medusa free to reproduce sexually with others, usually dying shortly after. However, should their processes be disturbed, the fish can very much hold death off to the side.
The ocean is a vast and unpredictable body, privy to starving, injuring, or being too hot or cold for its inhabitants. In that case, the versatile medusa will fall to the ocean floor and transform into a small blob of tissue (cyst), regressing into a polyp to regrow and heal. Although they follow a chronological set of phases, the organisms can fluidly transform from one to another. From here, it can adaptively flow back and forth between the medusa and polyp stages.
Although it seems like magic, this ability is the natural process of transdifferentiation. Simply put, this is when a fully formed specialized adult cell can adapt to another. In the cyst, adult cells can become something for the polyp and then integrate into the organism. The medusa can metamorphose back into a polyp in only two to three days.
As the precise details behind transdifferentiation are shrouded in mystery, researchers propose the answer is in the jelly’s DNA. Specific genes being utilized or not will determine the cell and its role. At the moment, scientists want to understand what kind of genes are used in the cyst, as they might be the genes involved in regeneration and the ability to bypass death.
The ocean continues to amaze and mesmerize minds with its bottomless array of creatures, the immortal jellyfish being one of its most unique. Since its discovery in the 1880s, their existence has been a spectacle and mystery in marine biology. Although there is a decade’s worth of knowledge surrounding the creatures, there is much left to learn about their mechanics.
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