While we may have the luxury of operating surgeon to put us back in one piece follow injury , other member of the animal kingdom are not quite so golden ( unless , of track , a veteran happens to be around , but let ’s not be pedantic ) . So what do they do ? Healing is an obvious and omnipresent ability , and some animals can regrow limbs should they miss them .
Limb regeneration may voice creepy to us , but it ’s actually pretty common in invertebrate species , and some vertebrates like salamander can also do it . But it turns out , there ’s an even more weird and wonderful chemical mechanism out there that had slipped under scientist ’ radars until now . Rather than grow back a body part that has been lopped off , the synodic month Portuguese man-of-war actuallyshuffles its existing organic structure component aroundin order to recover symmetry .
It was strictly by accident that the researchers made this singular discovery . The squad from Caltech had initially plan a work to see limb repair in the immortal Portuguese man-of-war ( Turritopsis dohrnii ) , but their samples ask a while to get . Rather than sitting idle , the scientists used this chance to have a run through of the techniques they were going to use , with the help of the uncouth moon jellyfish ( Aurelia aurita),National Geographicreports .
Since accidental injury is reportedly common in nautical invertebrates , and many possess the capacity to regenerate , the researchers were interested in how the man-of-war answer to injuries . Much to the researchers ’ surprise , after execute an arm amputation on the test subject , the lunation Portuguese man-of-war did not regrow its limbs , but instead rearranged its be body parts to find symmetry . This is crucial for jellyfish since asymmetrical individuals would contend to glide through the pee efficiently .
Astonishingly , this reorganization process , which has been dubbed “ symmetrization , ” only took between 12 hours to 4 days to discharge , the team reports inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . Further examination revealed that this ability was not drive by cell growth , last or extraneous cues , and even took stead when the researchers graft foreign arms onto the amputated somebody . Instead , it was found to be strung-out on the muscle machinery the jellyfish uses to actuate itself through the weewee .
When the team apply muscle relaxant to the amputee , they failed to undergo symmetrization . Similarly , when the research worker used drugs to rev up the pulsation pace of their muscles , the process was completed in a short period of time . As repoint out by National Geographic , this seems to suggest that the jellyfish contract their muscle in such a style that it forces the remaining arms further aside .
“ It ’s like squeezing one side of a stress ball and you get a jut on the other side , ” lead investigator Lea Goentoro toldNational Geographic .
Moving forward , the research worker areoptimisticthat this discovery could ultimately serve as aspiration for a new generation of biomaterials , and possibly facilitate researcher working in the field of regenerative medical specialty .
