Secret life of Plankton
Two scientists try to unravel the secrets of the jellyfish’s life cycle.
While one cuts the animals into halves, the other dissolves the whole animals into their single cells.
Metamorphosis
It’s incredible, almost unbelievable, how the jellyfish larva and other plankton can transform in to vastly different body forms, just like Kafka’s Metamorphosis.
Metamorphosis
It’s incredible, almost unbelievable, how the jellyfish larva and other plankton can transform in to vastly different body forms, just like Kafka’s Metamorphosis.
It’s a fascinating topic and scientists
around the world are trying to uncover
its secrets.
Metamorphosis
It’s incredible, almost unbelievable, how the jellyfish larva and other plankton can transform in to vastly different body forms, just like Kafka’s Metamorphosis.
It’s a fascinating topic and scientists
around the world are trying to uncover
its secrets.
Depending on the questions you ask,
there can be numerous different ways
to search for an answer.
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The settlement
Julia is interested in the transition from the larva stage to the adult polyp.
It is a key process in allowing species to colonise new ecosystems.
The larva fixes onto a surface, which could be a rock, algae, the sea bed... choosing a suitable environment
The settlement
Julia is interested in the transition from the larva stage to the adult polyp.
It is a key process in allowing species to colonise new ecosystems.
The larva fixes onto a surface, which could be a rock, algae, the sea bed... choosing a suitable environment
The settlement
Julia is interested in the transition from the larva stage to the adult polyp.
It is a key process in allowing species to colonise new ecosystems.
The larva fixes onto a surface, which could be a rock, algae, the sea bed... choosing a suitable environment
Julia wants to understand how the larva senses and responds to external cues to find the best place to settle.
We know that larvae fix to the substrate through the front end of the body.
We also know that the nervous system of
the larva is concentrated here.
We know that larvae fix to the substrate through the front end of the body.
We also know that the nervous system of
the larva is concentrated here.
This is why Julia cuts the larva in two halves
(the anterior & the posterior) to then compare their cellular and molecular composition.
This is why Julia cuts the larva in two halves
(the anterior & the posterior) to then compare their cellular and molecular composition.
To understand this process better, she then looks for specific cells and genes in the front half of the larva that are key in the settlement.
Cutting animals in halves
The history of cutting animals in half
Cutting (invertebrate) animals in their different life stages into halves or
quartiles or even smaller bits are among the first experiments in developmental biology.
The idea behind this method is to find out which areas of the larval body
are responsible for the formation of certain body parts in the adult.
Adult and Larva
Anna is interested in the differences between the adult jellyfish and the larva.
We have two completely different looking body forms during one animal’s life, but there might be more similarities when we take a look at the cells that make them up.
Anna is asking: Do the adult and
larva share similar types of cells?
For this she dissolves the whole larva and
adult animal into their thousands of individual
single cells, by immersing the animals into a
modified artificial sea water without calcium and magnesium.
She then filters the cell suspension.
She now needs to identify, group and compare the individual cells.
This is done on a molecular level.
Techniques
This approach is very new and has only been established in recent years. We can actually compare individual cells across the broad range of different species and their life stages!
Techniques
This approach is very new and has only been established in recent years. We can actually compare individual cells across the broad range of different species and their life stages!
In comparison, the traditional technique of "cutting animals into halves" is used to understand the mechanistic rules of development within an animal.
While Anna and Julia are trying to uncover the secrets of a single living species, we can also take a look at the bigger picture again and at questions that arise if we think about their evolution.
