The sea anemone Nematostella vectensis is potentially immortal. Using molecular genetic methods, developmental biologists led by Ulrich Technau from the University of Vienna have now identified possible candidates for multipotent stem cells in the sea anemone for the first time.
University of ViennaAug 19 2024 These stem cells are regulated by evolutionary highly conserved genes, which in humans are usually only active in the formation of egg and sperm cells, but give ancient animal phyla such as cnidarians a high degree of regenerative capacity to even escape aging. The results are currently being published in Science Advances and could also provide insights into the human ageing process in the future.
While humans and most vertebrates can only regenerate parts of certain organs or limbs, other animal groups have far stronger regeneration mechanisms. This ability is made possible by pluripotent or multipotent stem cells, which can form almost all cell types of the body. The sea anemone Nematostella vectensis is also highly regenerative: it can reproduce asexually by budding and also shows no signs of ageing, which makes it an interesting subject for stem cell research.
By combining single-cell gene expression analyses and transgenesis, we have now been able to identify a large population of cells in the sea anemone that form differentiated cells such as nerve cells and glandular cells and are therefore candidates for multipotent stem cells." They have remained undiscovered until now due to their tiny size.
Cell Gene Genes Genetic Multipotent Stem Cells Research Sperm
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