Turritopsis Genome DataBase

In most animals, aging is an irreversible process. However, life cycle reversion, which is rejuvenation from a mature or young medusa to a polyp, is a unique feature of some cnidarian jellyfish species. In particular, two jellyfish species, Turritopsis rubra and Turritopsis dohrnii have been observed life cycle reversion in the laboratory, in which we can artificially induce by some means, such as incubation with CsCl, heat shock and mechanical damage with needles. By mechanical damage with needles, Dr. Kubota have been succeeded repeated rejuvenation cycles as many as 14 times in a female T. rubra colony from southern Japan. We present the now publicly available the genome and transcriptome sequences of a repeatedly rejuvenating jellyfish.