Dido Carrero Muñiz, from Oviedo, is, together with her colleague María Pascual Torner, the principal investigator of a study with international relevance and that bears the Asturian stamp: the sequencing of the genome of the immortal jellyfish. A team from the University of Oviedo, led by Carlos López Otín, has once again managed to place the Principality on the map of world science and decipher the keys to eternal life contained in a tiny being (four millimeters in size) that lives in the Mediterranean Sea and in Japanese waters.
The young molecular biologist Dido Carrero (Oviedo, 1994) has been receiving nonstop phone calls for two days. The finding, published on Monday in the American journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences”, has aroused the interest of many media outlets. “We are a bit saturated,” says the postdoctoral researcher. Her work, she points out, does not pursue the dream of human immortality, but lays “a foundation” to seek better answers to the many diseases that are now associated with aging.
Why a jellyfish and not another animal?
We focused on this jellyfish (Turritopsis dohrnii) because it was described as the only animal capable of reverting from a post-reproductive adult phase to a polyp (that is, rejuvenating). Yes, there are other animals that come a little closer to immortality, such as the hydra (a tiny freshwater polyp related to jellyfish), but the hydra simply remains, while the jellyfish we sequenced is capable to return to a previous state. Upon reading this information, Carlos López Otín, together with another researcher from the group, Guillermo Mariño, came up with the idea of investigating the genetic keys that the jellyfish Turritopsis dohrnii possessed and that gave it that ability to reverse-rejuvenate.
If it was known to be the only existing immortal species in the world, why was its genome not deciphered until now?
It is a difficult species to isolate, to work with… It has been investigated by many groups, but we have been the first to sequence its genome.
How was the work process: from the capture of the jellyfish to the analysis of all its genes?
This jellyfish lives in the waters of the Mediterranean and Japan. My colleague María Pascual traveled to Italy, to the coast of Santa Catalina, to isolate a specimen and bring it to Asturias in a van, maintaining ideal conditions for its survival. As Oviedo has no sea, we collaborated with the Gijón Aquarium, which gave us fundamental support. In those facilities we were able to maintain the species and make it grow. DNA samples were taken and sent for sequencing.
Is that immortal jellyfish still preserved in Asturias?
Yes, it is at the University of Oviedo, in the Department of Biology of Organisms and Systems. They are very small jellyfish, so we have several specimens.
How many people have worked in the studio?
From the laboratory of Carlos López Otín we are approximately ten. Scientists from other centers have also participated, such as in the jellyfish fishing phase. Although we work in parallel with other projects, all this has taken us five years.
Apart from knowing in depth why this jellyfish is immortal, what has the sequencing of its genome given you?
We sequenced the genome of this species and also of another of the same genus of jellyfish but that did not have that capacity to be immortal. We compared both genomes and found aspects that were only present in the immortal jellyfish. This is how we were able to describe a series of mechanisms that intervene in the aging process and that could be responsible for immortality.
How many times is the immortal jellyfish able to go back in time?
There is no limit number. It simply does so when the environmental conditions are suitable to return to its polyp state. It’s not like you do it ten times and then you can’t do it anymore.
Once the genome has been sequenced, what next?
During our research we have also carried out a transcriptomics study, which consists of analyzing which genes are active throughout the different phases of the reversion process. As a result, we have seen that a series of genes related to cell pluripotency are activated, which is the ability of a cell to become another type of cell. For example, in a human it would be the transformation of a skin cell to another of the liver. In the jellyfish, a differentiated, adult cell goes back and has the ability to become any cell type. And that is very important for regenerative medicine. We now want to continue exploring this mechanism, as well as using other techniques such as proteomics, transferring changes in genes to other cell or animal models so that we can later find a relationship with humans.
Does work open a new door to reverse diseases associated with old age?
Although perhaps we do not focus so much on it and on more general questions about aging, our study can serve as a basis for many other laboratories to explore the genes involved in specific diseases related to old age.
Do you think that this work shows that Asturias has the capacity to be at the forefront of science?
I do, and not just because of our lab. We have great powers and promises in science whose discoveries are very relevant at an international level.
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You have managed to stay in Asturias, do you feel lucky?
I wouldn’t have minded having gone away, in fact, I was almost looking for him. But I do consider that I am lucky compared to other people who have had to leave because they had no other choice and who would like to be here. In this sense, Asturias offers very few possibilities to young and not so young researchers. Developing a scientific career in Asturias is very difficult, if not impossible. Doing it here is a titanic task.