Dalton Malmin | February 24th, 2025
Deep in the ocean lives Turritopsis dohrnii, a jellyfish capable of cheating death. Commonly referred to as the “immortal jellyfish,” the organism is renowned for its unique ability to revert its cells to an earlier developmental stage in response to adverse conditions — a process researchers term transdifferentiation. This unprecedented capability allows the jellyfish to transform from its adult medusa form into a polyp, effectively resetting its life cycle and circumventing death.
Recent genomic analyses have clarified what exactly the molecular mechanisms are that underlie this process. A comparative study between T. dohrnii and a related species that does not exhibit life cycle reversal revealed significant differences in genes associated with DNA replication, repair, and stem cell renewal. Notably, T. dohrnii has been shown to exhibit upregulation in pathways that enhance the stability of telomeres, the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes, which are often associated with aging in other organisms. Suppressing cellular stress responses while maintaining genomic integrity apparently may be key to its remarkable plasticity and regenerative capacity. These findings ultimately suggest that T. dohrnii has evolved sophisticated molecular adaptations that allow it to escape the biological constraints of aging and death, which distinguishes it as a unique model for studying cellular resilience more generally.
The implications of these discoveries extend beyond just marine biology. Understanding the genetic and cellular pathways that enable T. dohrnii to achieve biological immortality could possibly inform regenerative medicine and aging research. By untangling how this jellyfish stages transdifferentiation and life cycle reversal, researchers aim to uncover strategies that might one day be applied more broadly to human health.
References
Hasegawa, Y., Watanabe, T., Otsuka, R., Toné, S., Kubota, S., & Hirakawa, H. (2022). Genome Assembly and transcriptomic analyses of the repeatedly rejuvenating jellyfish turritopsis dohrnii. DNA Research, 30(1). https://doi.org/10.1093/dnares/dsac047
Matsumoto, Y., & Miglietta, M. P. (2021). Cellular reprogramming and immortality: Expression profiling reveals putative genes involved in turritopsis dohrnii’s life cycle reversal. Genome Biology and Evolution, 13(7). https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evab136
