October 7, 2024
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The two-butted comb jelly is actually a fusion of two individuals
Two injured sea creatures combine to form ‘Frankenjelly’
As seen in this video still, two damaged comb jellyfish have fused into one life form.
When researchers observed two-butted ctenophores, or comb jellies (gelatinous marine creatures similar to jellyfish), at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, they noticed something strange. I noticed that it was happening.
Upon closer inspection, we found that the jelly containing double derriere was recently… two Individual “sea walnut” comb jelly (Mnemiopsis leidii). After being injured during collection the previous day, the comb jellyfish fused overnight in the researchers’ aquarium, becoming a single organism joined at the midsection.
This coupling was widespread, biologist Kei Shirokura of the University of Exeter and Japan’s National Institute of Natural Science and his colleagues say in a paper published today. current biology. When scientists poked one side, both bodies flinched, suggesting that the two nervous systems had joined.
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The two comb-like jellies fuse to form one living creature, and their previously separate nervous systems respond to stimuli in sync.
The team wasn’t the first to discover Kushi Jelly’s creepy fusion trick. In the 1930s, at the very same research station, marine biologist BR Coonfield conducted experiments on comb jellyfish that would have horrified Mary Shelley. Perhaps the most impressive of Coonfield’s Ctenomonsters was the one that consisted of the bodies of four people and a fifth person’s mouth, sensory organs, and buttocks.
Using 21st century tools, Jokura and his team were able to rigorously test the process. After implanting more jellies and taking high-resolution images every second, the researchers found that the fused comb jellies synchronized their nervous systems in just two hours. “The scope and speed of that integration is pretty crazy,” says Stephen Haddock, a marine biologist who studies ctenophores at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and was not involved in the study. .
The researchers also found that in the implanted jelly, food eaten in one mouth was shared between both digestive tracts. Each animal’s only unique feature was its anus. Sea walnuts have a “temporary anus”, the opening of which only appears during defecation. Both bodies formed anuses and pooped, but not at the same time.
Scientists say fusions of these animals are unlikely to occur frequently in the wild because adults of this species are not often seen together. Still, this serendipitous finding suggests that comb jellies lack conspecific recognition, the ability to distinguish between self and non-self within the same species.
“They have no problem incorporating tissue from other animals into their bodies,” says study co-author Tomi Antonen, a sensory physiologist at the University of Southern Denmark.
Researchers hope that comb jellyfish fusion could one day help with human transplantation techniques. Allorecognition triggers an immune response that can lead to transplant rejection, and knowing how the ctenophore’s immune system functions without it may make the human body more accepting of stranger organs. may be helpful. “Simple organisms hold clues to understanding our own complexity,” says Jokura. “So are the treasures that benefit our lives.”
