IMMORTAL JELLY FISH

Turritopsis nutricula (The immortal jelly fish)

There is organism in great wide world of ours ,Turritopsis nutricula defining itself as an immortal organism in animal kingdom.

Distribution : Originating from the Caribbean sea ,this unique creature has spread all over the world and now it has been found in both temperate and tropical regions,though it prefers warmer water.

SIZE : It is around 4-5 millimeter tall and wide.

This Immortal jelly fish has ability to reactivate its genetic instructions from earlier in its life cycle.Thus by escaping death it achieves potential immortality. In case of sure death,it revert back to young version of itself.

Now, let us try to understand its life cycle

Usually corals, sea anemones & jelly fish belongs to group of animals called cnidarians. Turritopsis nutricula belongs to hydrozoans. Some jelly fish change forms at different phases of their life cycle,while others remain in one form for their entire life.There are two basic body shapes which exit in the life cycle of jelly fish.

1. Polyp form ( which remains attached to surface)
2. Medusa form (which is a free floating,adult form)

Now let us the discuss the way that they are biologically immortal. Normally ,in hydrozoans life cycle ,Medusae ( matured jellyfish) spawn( fertilize) sperm and eggs. Any fertilized eggs becomes small larvae called PLANULA. when these planula settles somewhere below the sea,a new hydroid colony grows once again which are called as POLYPS ,these eventually grow in colonies and releases more medusae and these medusae develop into matured jellyfish and this is how the cycle is with both sexually and asexually reproduction.

However, Turritopsis are different.when they become threatened by physical activities or starvation , in such conditions they transform back to juvenile polyp stage by shinking their tentacles and body they sink to ocean floor to start a new cycle . over a time when a condition is favorable, new genetically identical clones of original jellyfish are released from polyp into sea and later polyp gets transformed into medusae and later medusae gets mature and develop into mature jellyfish and again if they are threatened ,the process can be repeated over and over. The way T.nutricula is able to live forever is through the process called as TRANSDIFFERENTIATION,it is process in which change of cell or tissue from one differentiated state to another OR it is the process of differentiation of a tissue-specific stem cell into another type of cell,for example,a bone marrow stem cell differentiating into a neuron.During this process it help them to survive by reducing metabolic requirements which help them to turn to polyp besides it can encyst. As a cyst T.nutricula can stay dormant for extended periods of time until environmental conditions are favorable to restart its life cycle. In most of jellyfish,once their adulthood is reached, asexual reproduction is no longer possible. But T.nutricula has two forms. Sexual reproduction and asexual reproduction, if there are enough sexually mature jellyfish, will be able to reproduce sexually and if, population density is low it can just revert back and can produce asexually,which is known as biologically immortal.

BENIFITS OF T.nutricula

THIS natural process( Transdifferentiation)has inspired many researchers to find stem cells to renew damaged or dead tissues in humans,so that many diseases like cancer and many more can be treated. This organism has found itself as great important. If a cell or organism undergoes aging , there are two biological processes. 1. Negative regulation of cell division. 2.Positive regulation of apoptosis may occur. Furthermore aging and neurodegenerative diseases are directly associated with these two biological processes while cancer ,aging does not happen hence these two processes are inversely associated. Thus T. nutricula has been a great tool in cancer ,aging and neurodegenerative related disorder.

Another interesting thing is these soft bodies rely on thousands of venom containing stinging cells on their tentacles called Cnidocytes, for their protection and prey capture. this venom ejected via a nematocyst , is a whip like a hollow tube which lies coiled under high osmotic pressure. when mechanical or chemical stimuli activate ( physical touch) ,an external trigger happens ,the lid of the cell breaks and opens,due to this sea water rushes in due to change in osmotic pressure ,this forces a microscopic barbed harpoon (nematocysts) to shoot out ,to penerate and inject into victim.

Humans might benefit from these stings of jellyfish, scientists are working on manipulating Cnidocytes to deliver medicine with nematocytes rarely 3% of size of typical syringe needle so it would help in the medical field. Besides it has harmful effects too ,the venom released by nematocysts causes contraction in heart muscles and even rapid death in case of rapid dose. Thus in such cases we should remove nematocyts by applying salt water followed by hot water and in these cases avoid applying cold water or fresh water.

One day in future humans may live for hundreds or even thousands of years and this may well be achieved because of research on immortal jellyfish . You could have ability to transform back into younger version of yourself enabling you to live forever.

REf:http://ed.ted.comhttps://youtu.be/yQduHyiWe9o ref:https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://tnutricula-bethelu-corylundeen.weebly.com/unique-life-cycle.html&ved=2ahUKEwijt5-zoe_qAhWf4HMBHSrYCVYQFjAVegQIBRAB&usg=AOvVaw1m9nsa3uJn8oMawITwd_8h&cshid=1596183811583