An animal that is ready to regenerate all of its organs, even when damaged into three elements – Watts Up With That?
A surprising discovery in the Gulf of Eilat
TEL-AVIV UNIVERSITY
Research news
PICTURE: POLYCARPA MYTILIGERA show more CREDIT: TAL ZAQUIN
An extraordinary discovery in the Gulf of Eilat: Researchers from Tel Aviv University have discovered a species of ascidian, a marine animal that is common in the Gulf of Eilat and can regenerate all of its organs – even if it is broken into three fragments. The study was led by Prof. Noa Shenkar, Prof. Dorothee Huchon-Pupko and Tal Gordon from Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Zoology at the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History. The results of this surprising discovery were published in the leading journal Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology.
“It is an amazing discovery because it is an animal that belongs to the phylum chordata – animals with a spinal cord – to which we humans also belong,” explains Prof. Noa Shenkar. “The ability to regenerate organs is widespread in the animal kingdom, and even among chord data you can find animals that regenerate organs, like the gecko, which is able to breed a new tail. But not whole body systems. Here we have found a chordata that can regenerate all of its organs, even if it is divided into three parts, each part knowing exactly how all missing body systems can function again within a short period of time. “
There are hundreds of species of ascidian found in all of the world’s oceans and seas. Anyone who has ever opened their eyes underwater has seen Ascidians without knowing it, as they often camouflage themselves as clumps on rocks and are therefore difficult to see. The animal that is the subject of this new study is an ascidian from the species Polycarpa mytiligera, which is very common in the coral reefs of Eilat.
“The Ascidian is by all means a simple organism with two openings in its body: an entrance and an exit,” says Tal Gordon, whose dissertation included this new research. “There is a central organ in the body that resembles a colander. The ascidian sucks in water through the entry point of the body, the sieve filters the food particles remaining in the body and the clean water exits through the exit point. From an evolutionary point of view, invertebrates are considered to be the closest to humans. “
Ascidians are famous for their ability to regenerate, but until now these abilities have been identified primarily in asexual reproduction. Never before has such a high regenerative capacity been found in a chordal animal that reproduces only through sexual reproduction.
“There are types of Ascidians that do a simple regeneration in order to reproduce,” says Gordon. “These are species with a colonial lifestyle in which many identical individuals are linked together. They replicate in order to grow. In contrast, the Eilat ascidian, Polycarpa mytiligera, is an organism with a lonely lifestyle without the ability to reproduce asexually, similar to that of humans. In previous studies, we have shown that this species is able to regenerate its digestive system and its entry and exit points within a few days. But then we wanted to see if it was able to renew all of the body systems. We took a couple of individual Ascidians from Eilat and split them into two parts that could easily refill the removed sections. In a subsequent experiment, we dismantled several dozen ascidians into three fragments, leaving a part of the body without a nerve center, heart and part of the digestive system. And contrary to our expectations, not only did each part survive the dissection on its own, but all organs in each of the three sections were regenerated. Instead of one Ascidian there were now three. It is very amazing. Never before has such a regenerative capacity been discovered in a single species that reproduces sexually all over the world. “
Prof. Shenkar sums up: “Since the dawn of mankind, humans have been fascinated by the ability to regenerate damaged or missing organs. Regeneration is a wonderful ability that we have on a very limited scale and we want to understand how it works in order to try to apply it in our own bodies. Anyone who snorkels in the Gulf of Eilat can find this fascinating ascidian that can potentially help us understand processes of tissue renewal that can benefit humanity. “
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