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Turritopsis dohrnii: Immortal jellyfish

Turritopsis dohrnii: Immortal jellyfish

7 comments

·May 9, 2025

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turritopsis_dohrnii

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decimalenough

Random factoid: in Singapore, there is a perennial political candidate who changed his legal name to Turritopsis Dohrnii Teo En Ming, because he wants to live forever like this jellyfish.

https://www.asiaone.com/singapore/pe-2023-it-consultant-says...

IncreasePosts

I'll consider throwing him vote, but I would need to see his polyp stage first before committing.

4ndrewl

I first became aware of these thanks to the Octonauts. Thanks Captain Barnacle! https://youtu.be/ZiLWrw-1GM8

kreco

Not an expert but I'm wondering why this jellyfish does not age.

Usually, at some point in time, cells cannot replicate correctly due to telomere shrinking.

Are jellyfishes not subject to any of this?

throwup238

Part of this species' transdifferentiation process in the cyst stage is increased expression of various DNA repair mechanisms include telomerase [1].

> Transcripts associated with telomere organization and maintenance, DNA integration, repair, and damage response were among those that showed high expression in the cyst relative to medusa and polyp.

[1] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8480191/

svachalek

Not all jellyfish, just this one.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2335495-immortal-jellyf...

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