How does a jellyfish resume its “almost” infinite life path? | Science

At A statement Nathalie Lamoureux, author of the French newspaper “Le Point”, said that the idea of ​​”eternal life” was as old-fashioned as the world that had led men and women from generation to generation to search for strange things. Holy Grail or Fountain of Youth.

These efforts, mobilized to liberate mankind from disease and old age through scientific and technological discoveries, are a continuation of ancient attempts to find a path to immortality or liberation from our mortal nature.

Indestructible jellyfish

According to Helen Merle Pearl, a researcher on the mechanisms of cell death, the strange thing is that the seabed is filled with abnormally small organisms that return to their young form.

The most important of these creatures that scientists have focused on is the indestructible jellyfish, which is scientifically known as “turtophasis”. One of the unique features of this aquatic animal is its ability to renew its cells indefinitely.

The author notes that there are two species of jellyfish belonging to the genus Turtopesis known as indestructible jellyfish: the first was the ‘Tropebesis neutracula’ discovered by John McGrady in 1857 in the Caribbean Sea, and the second Christian-educated indestructible jellyfish. Somer, a student of marine biology in the Mediterranean region of Italy in 1988.

Turapaceae Nutracula is less than 5 mm long. The second type, the “indestructible jellyfish”, changes shape depending on its environment. It has 8 tents in tropical water and 24 or more tents in temperate areas.

Khalid in theory .. but how?

Young jellyfish grow, multiply, and then die. But when their living conditions worsen, such as malnutrition, inappropriate water temperature, injury and old age, enable the jellyfish to refuse to die, as the jellyfish change their shape and begin to return to the polyp state. Which again makes the course of normal life “theoretically immortal.”

This process is similar to the re-assembly of a butterfly or the return of a human to the embryonic stage. In 2011, Shin Kubota, a marine biologist at the University of Kyoto in Japan, observed that indestructible jellyfish reproduced themselves 10 times in a row.

The process at the center of these changes is called “mutual difference,” says Stefano Brino, a biologist at the University of Les in Italy and one of the first scientists to discover the phenomenon.

Differentiation anisotropy is similar to a reverse movement in which specialized cells lose their structure and return to the initial, undifferentiated state, without characteristics, and then a new differential state emerges, but by what mechanism?

Scientists know that some genes are activated when this process begins, but they do not know how the molecular switches that allow genes to be active and inactive are regulated. If we know this, for example, some genes can be reactivated so that cells can continue to produce some essential proteins.

The question arises: thanks to this amazing ability of “mutual diversity”, were jellyfish able to colonize all the seas of the world? In fact, it is not so.

Marine ecology researcher Bella Jalil said, “Combusters, corals, marine anemones and jellyfish are widespread and do not have the interchangeability mechanism of marine and inland aquatic organisms and indestructible jellyfish.

Occupying the oceans and seas very quickly, the indestructible jellyfish lived in the crevices of the water-filled vessels that roamed the world, changing and reproducing its life cycle in this stressful environment.

Should we worry about this spread?

“Jellyfish have dramatic environmental and economic impacts ranging from damage to fisheries to pollution of coastal and marine infrastructure, to hazards to human health,” said Bella Jalil.

“We do not know if this threatens biodiversity. We must first determine how many species there are. Molecular studies have found between species 7 and 9 of the genus Euriperix, and one species may be a mixture of two to four hidden species.”

Due to this apparent complexity, the occupation or local status of the native species needs to be carefully re-evaluated. However, the available data indicate that the endangered jellyfish is an invasive species.