Amazing stuff!
"While aging affects most living organisms, the hydrozoan Turritopsis dohrnii is the only species able to rejuvenate repeatedly after sexual reproduction, becoming biologically immortal. Setting the whole-genome of this metazoan is indispensable to study in depth mechanisms responsible for its immortal phenotype. Here, we report the genome assembly of T. dohrnii and its congeneric species Turritopsis rubra, incapable of rejuvenating at mature stages. Further, we compare a set of almost 1,000 genes related to aging and DNA repair between both Turritopsis and other cnidarians and present a stage-specific transcriptome of life cycle reversal process of T. dohrnii. Altogether, these results unveil key molecular mechanisms behind rejuvenation of T. dohrnii."
From the abstract:
"Turritopsis dohrnii is the only metazoan able to rejuvenate repeatedly after its medusae reproduce, hinting at biological immortality and challenging our understanding of aging. We present and compare whole-genome assemblies of T. dohrnii and the nonimmortal Turritopsis rubra using automatic and manual annotations, together with the transcriptome of life cycle reversal (LCR) process of T. dohrnii. We have identified variants and expansions of genes associated with replication, DNA repair, telomere maintenance, redox environment, stem cell population, and intercellular communication. Moreover, we have found silencing of polycomb repressive complex 2 targets and activation of pluripotency targets during LCR, which points to these transcription factors as pluripotency inducers in T. dohrnii. Accordingly, we propose these factors as key elements in the ability of T. dohrnii to undergo rejuvenation."
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