Roughly 60 researchers from seven countries attended the meeting, which was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. To vitalize and grow the North American Hydra community, Juliano and some colleagues organized Hydroidfest 2016, held at the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory. “Funding is tight in the United States and grants are more likely to go to more established model organisms, thus making it difficult to work on Hydra,” said Juliano. Though the Hydra is a miraculous animal, it is a much more popular model organism in Europe than the United States. Stefan Siebert/Juliano LabĪ place for the North American Hydra community The lack of aging in Hydra, scientifically termed non-senescence, is due to the seemingly endless ability to regenerate stem cells. “But this is one thing we’re interested in, how transposons are repressed in adult stem cells.” “I wouldn’t say it’s the magic bullet of why Hydra doesn’t age,” said Juliano. Hydra cells never lose the ability to repress transposons. Some believe transposon expression plays a role in aging, but why the human body’s cells eventually lose control over this pathway is still a mystery. Uncontrolled, these jumping genes bounce around the genome, replicating, proliferating and inserting themselves into the genome like unhinged saboteurs. As time plods on, aging cells lose control over transposon repression. In organisms that age, such as humans, transposon expression is kept in check by a variety of genetic pathways during youth. They’re particularly interested in transposons, which are also called “jumping genes.” Juliano and her colleagues in the Juliano Lab are searching for the genetic elements that help prevent biological aging in Hydra. “The genome itself has to be faithfully propagated.” “The Hydra renews itself all the time, but just renewing yourself isn’t enough,” said Juliano. To uncover this mystery, Juliano is interested in how Hydra maintains its genome despite undergoing a large number of cell divisions. However, this doesn’t fully explain Hydra longevity. “They sometimes call Hydra the eternal embryo.”Ĭontinuous stem cell renewal is a major focus of Juliano’s research.
“If the animal has very powerful stem cells-because stem cells are the cells that give rise to all of your tissues-then you can regenerate very well,” said Juliano. In many organisms, stem cells lose their ability to replace dysfunctional cells with age. During embryonic growth and development, stem cells differentiate, becoming various cells throughout the body. Stem cells form the foundational building blocks of an organism’s body. This ancient water jar depicts the Lernaean Hydra battling Heracles (Etruscan, c. Hydra are named after the famed serpent of Greek mythology which grew two new heads for each one cut off. If you ball up those cells using a centrifuge, they reorganize, eventually forming a new Hydra.Īssistant Professor Celina Juliano, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at the UC Davis College of Biological Sciences, and her colleagues are probing Hydra stem cells, hoping to find clues to the organism’s regenerative capabilities and longevity. Blend one up, and you’re left with a soup of cells. Chop a Hydra into segments, and each segment will become a new Hydra. Outside the lab, the only real threats they face are predators, weather extremes and disease.Įver resilient, Hydra can survive dismemberment by regenerating lost sections of their bodies. Kept safe and in isolation, these organisms show no signs of aging. Hydra are unique because their stem cells exist in a continuous state of renewal.
Irhadra jellyfissh code#
Named after the serpent from Greek mythology that grew two new heads for each one cut off, this tiny, jellyfish-like creature holds within its genomic code the key to biological immortality. The Hydra, a small freshwater invertebrate, is an advantageous model organism for regenerative biologists.