The ‘immortal’ animal that may cheat dying

[ad_1] One ocean-dwelling creature present in tropical waters is thought to have the ability to reverse its personal life cycle, dishonest dying.

The jellyfish, Turritopsis dohrnii, was first found in 1883, nevertheless it was round 100 years later that scientists uncovered the creature's capability to rejuvenate its personal life cycle and fight environmental and bodily stresses.

Why It Issues The Turritopsis dohrnii's capability to rejuvenate may "maintain necessary clues to sustaining a protracted life and lengthening the healthspan of humankind," Michael Layden, a professor of organic sciences at Lehigh College, instructed Newsweek.

He added that the jellyfish had been additionally "very cheap to work with in a lab, and thus have the potential to be an enormous return on funding for biomedical analysis."

"The distinct rejuvenation mechanism of Turritopsis gives a wonderful actual life instance of an animal self therapeutic," he added. "Understanding how that occurs will not enable us to make ourselves immortal, nevertheless it doubtless opens up novel methods to develop therapies to deal with broken tissues and organs."

<img id="11228130" alt="An image of the Turritopsis dohrnii jellyfish." caption="An image of the Turritopsis dohrnii jellyfish taken in 2017." src="Dr. Karen J. Osborn/Wikimedia Commons" sourcealt="" sources="[]" fetchpriority="auto" loading="lazy" width="1920" height="1080" decoding="async" data-nimg="1" style="color:transparent;aspect-ratio:inherit;object-fit:cover" sizes="(min-width: 1200px) 1536px, (min-width: 768px) 768px, 100vw" srcset="https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Untitled-design-2025-12-17T153842.200.jpg?w=640&quality=80&webp=1 640w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Untitled-design-2025-12-17T153842.200.jpg?w=750&quality=80&webp=1 750w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Untitled-design-2025-12-17T153842.200.jpg?w=1000&quality=80&webp=1 1000w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Untitled-design-2025-12-17T153842.200.jpg?w=1200&quality=80&webp=1 1200w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Untitled-design-2025-12-17T153842.200.jpg?w=1360&quality=80&webp=1 1360w, https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Untitled-design-2025-12-17T153842.200.jpg?w=1600&quality=80&webp=1 1600w" bad-src="https://assets.newsweek.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Untitled-design-2025-12-17T153842.200.jpg?w=1600&quality=80&webp=1"/> What To Know The Turritopsis dohrnii, or T. dohrnii, is a kind of hydrozoan, a subgroup of a various group of aquatic invertebrates referred to as cnidarians, and hydrozoans are intently associated to what are often known as "true jellyfish."

Hydrozoans are much like jellyfish when it comes to their look, though they're structurally totally different, and the well-known Portuguese Man O'Struggle jellyfish belongs to the hydrozoan household.

T. dohrnii is round 4.5 millimeters vast and tall, making it smaller than the nail of your little finger, and when it experiences environmental or bodily stresses, which may embrace hunger, as an alternative of dying, it rejuvenates itself.

Primarily, its cells can "remodel into new cell sorts turning the unhealthy or confused grownup medusa right into a ball of tissue from which a polyp can develop," Christine Schnitzler, a professor of biology within the Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience on the College of Florida, instructed Newsweek.

A medusa is the time period used to explain an grownup jellyfish and a polyp is the title for the organism at its early stage of life. This course of—the medusa turning into a brand new polyp, which is known as transdifferentiation—additionally reportedly takes solely 24 to 36 hours.

Analysis additionally discovered that over a two-year interval, colonies of the jellyfish had been capable of naturally rejuvenate themselves as much as 10 instances, typically with intervals of just one month.

So as to perform this course of, when T. dohrnii is "bodily broken, ravenous, or confused by temperature adjustments," it sinks to the ocean flooring to start the transformation, "successfully bypassing dying," Maria Pia Miglietta, a professor of marine biology at Texas A&M College, instructed Newsweek.

Schnitzler mentioned the idea of this course of is "the activation of many genes concerned in issues like stem cell pluripotency, DNA replication, DNA restore, telomere upkeep, stem cell upkeep, and intercellular communication"—finally, it's an "excessive instance of mobile plasticity."

This capability has doubtless advanced in creatures like cnidarians "as method to reply to and adapt to altering environmental situations," she added.

There are additionally different kinds of hydrozoans which can be capable of perform this sort of mobile plasticity, Schnitzler mentioned.

Different cnidarians may also "rejuvenate themselves both by means of regeneration after damage and/or amputation or by means of asexual copy the place they produce clones of themselves," Layden mentioned.

Layden added that many cnidarian species are "theoretically immortal." For instance, sure sorts—i.e. corals, Hydra and Nematostella—are in a position to "reproduce asexually to clone themselves making them theoretically immortal."

After all, whereas these jellyfish are described as "immortal" as a result of they will cheat dying, that is to not say they cannot be killed, as some are prey to a variety of sea animals.

What Folks Are Saying Christine Schnitzler, a professor of biology within the Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience on the College of Florida, instructed Newsweek: "Scientists used to suppose that the majority terminally differentiated cell sorts may by no means turn out to be something aside from what they're. For instance, it was thought {that a} muscle cell couldn't change and turn out to be another sort of cell. The concept the differentiated state of a cell will not be a terminal finish level however, somewhat, may simply be a steady state that's open to alter primarily based on environmental components, is turning into extra accepted as extra examples are present in nature. The implications of this are many. Probably the most related to human well being is that this—these pure examples may supply novel options for producing totally purposeful mature cell sorts from human pluripotent stem cells within the discipline of stem cell therapeutics. Someday, we'd have a greater understanding of tips on how to management these advanced molecular and mobile processes and harness them for biomedical use."

Maria Pia Miglietta, a professor of marine biology at Texas A&M College, instructed Newsweek: "Turritopsis dohrnii is scientifically notable as a result of it gives a uncommon window into the genetic mechanisms of regeneration and ageing. In people, cells with the power to turn out to be another cell sort are largely restricted to early embryonic growth. In distinction, this jellyfish can reprogram its personal totally differentiated grownup cells and return them to a extra versatile state. Learning T. dohrnii permits researchers to analyze the genetic and epigenetic networks that allow this sort of mobile reprogramming. Its organic "immortality" additionally implies environment friendly techniques for DNA restore and mobile safety. Understanding how these processes work within the jellyfish can make clear basic mechanisms which can be additionally essential in people, together with genome upkeep, ageing, and tissue regeneration."