Researchers discover new species of marine creatures that can age in reverse | Technology News
Scientists have discovered a new species of marine invertebrate that breaks the traditional cycle of birth, ageing, and death to which most animals are bound.
Comb jellies, also known as ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi, can defy age and revert to younger versions of themselves, according to a recent study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Joan J Soto-Angel, one of the co-authors of the study, said that one day, he was surprised to see larval comb jelly in place of the adult comb jelly that usually resided in his lab’s tank. Upon further investigation, he realised that it was the same animal.
This curious incident spurred an experiment conducted by Soto-Angel and his colleagues in which they tried to reproduce the conditions that had triggered the de-ageing process in the comb jelly.
They found that adult comb jelly can regress and reach a larval stage if they are subjected to extreme stress.
“The work challenges our understanding of early animal development and body plans, opening new avenues for the study of life cycle plasticity and rejuvenation. The fact that we have found a new species that uses this peculiar ‘time-travel machine’ raises fascinating questions about how spread this capacity is across the animal tree of life,” Soto-Angel, a postdoctoral fellow at Norway’s University of Bergen, was quoted as saying by Gizmodo.
“Over several weeks, they [comb jelly] not only reshaped their morphological features, but also had a completely different feeding behaviour, typical of a cydippid larva,” he added.
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As per research, comb jellies could also be one of the first animals to have existed as their origin can be traced back to an estimated 700 million years ago.
However, they are not the only members of the “time-travelers” club. Turritopsis dohrnii, known as the immortal jellyfish, have been observed to undergo reverse biological development too.
The latest discovery pertaining to comb jellies could help better understand the ageing process in humans as well as the developmental biology of other animals.
“This fascinating finding will open the door for many important discoveries. It will be interesting to reveal the molecular mechanism driving reverse development, and what happens to the animal’s nerve net during this process.” Paul Burkhardt, who also co-wrote the study, said.
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