A team of researchers has revealed the surprising ability to survive of some pl organismsgelatinous ancthonians, known as comb jellyfish although they are not exactly jellyfish, which they come to merge between two individuals to continue living when they are injured.
This is how a study published this Monday in the journal Current Biology describes it as a result of the study of cBehavior of specimens of ‘Mnemiopsis leidyi’, a tentacled ctenophore native to the coastal waters of the western Atlantic Ocean, in a seawater tank in the laboratory.
The scientists have seen howafter being injured, two individuals from comb jellyfish quickly synchronize their muscle contractions and fuse their nervous systems and digestive systems to share food and become a single specimen.
Origin
ANDThe study began when researchers were struck by a particularly large specimen among the Mnemiopsis leidyi specimens that they had in a seawater tank in the laboratory.
The scientists They noticed that this larger specimen seemed have two hind limbs and two sensory structures instead of one, so they suspected that it could be the result of the fusion of two animals.
To find out, They caught other individuals, wounded them, removing partial earlobes from them.and they placed them together in pairs, seeing that in 9 out of 10 cases the two specimens ended up fused into one, which survived at least 3 weeks after the injury.
a study later showed that, after a single night, the two original individuals became one with no apparent separation between them.
When The researchers punctured one of the lobes, the entire body fused He reacted with a startle response, which would indicate that the nervous systems of the two individuals were also completely fused.
“We were surprised to observe that mechanical stimulation applied to one side of the fused specimen caused a synchronized muscle contraction on the other side,” explains one of the authors, researcher at the British University of Exeter, Kei Jokura.
express fusion
More observations detailed studies showed that the fused ctenophores They had spontaneous movements during the first hour after which the rhythm of contractions of each lobe began to become more synchronized.
After just two hours, 95% of the fused animal’s muscle contractions were completely synchronized, indicate.
Next, They observed that the digestive system of the two animals had also come together: When one of the mouths ate a shrimp previously fluorescently marked by the researchers, the food particles made their way through a fused intestine.
the animal expelled food waste for both years, although not at the same time.
The researchers They want to continue investigating to unravel the molecular mechanisms behind the fusion of the two comb jellyfish individuals, since, as you remember, research with this type of organisms is essential to achieve medical advances in humans.
CLG
