Dubbed "aliens of the sea" by researchers, comb jellies have an amazing ability to regenerate lost parts when they are chopped apart, in some cases even regrowing rudimentary brains.
"Nature has found solutions how to stay healthy," researcher Leonid Moroz, a neurobiologist at the University of Florida, told The Associated Press during a recent test trip off the Florida coastline. "We need to learn how they do it. But they are so fragile, we have to do it here," at sea.
Moroz and a team are seeking to map out the genome of comb jellies and other delicate marine creatures to discover the secrets of their amazing regenerative genes. The jelly's soft body can regrow missing parts, and some species can even regenerate neural networks.
"Why does one regenerate, and another not?" Moroz asked. "That is the million-dollar question."
The creatures have "elementary brains," circuit systems of nerve cells, that some species of comb jellies can regrow in three to five days after injury.
Working at sea seems to be the best solution to studying the delicate animals, which begin to break down quickly after they are captured. Shipments of jelly samples have also been lost in transit or damaged while being held up at U.S. customs, the AP reported.
The research will eventually be applied to understanding human brain diseases, although scientists still have a long way to go. A better knowledge of how genes work together in creatures like the comb jelly is a stepping stone.
"We sequenced the human genome but we still don't know how it works," University of Washington biology professor Billie Swalla, an invertebrate specialist, told the AP. "To figure out how it works, you have to have other models you can work on. A lot of these genes are the same, and they interact in the same kind of pathways."
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