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Title

The conserved mitochondrial gene distribution in relatives of Turritopsis nutricula, an immortal jellyfish

 

Authors

Pratap Devarapalli1, 2, Ranjith N. Kumavath1*, Debmalya Barh3 & Vasco Azevedo4

 

Affiliation

1Department of Genomic Science, Central University of Kerala, Riverside Transit Campus, Opp: Nehru College of Arts and Science, NH 17, Padanakkad, Nileshwer, Kasaragod, Kerala-671328, INDIA; 2Genomics & Molecular Medicine Unit, Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Mathura Road, New Delhi-110025, INDIA; 3Centre for Genomics and Applied Gene Technology, Institute of Integrative Omics and Applied Biotechnology (IIOAB), Nonakuri, PurbaMedinipur, West Bengal-721172, INDIA; 4Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. MG, Brazil

 

Email

rnkumavath@gmail.com; *Corresponding author

 

Article Type

Hypothesis

 

Date

Received August 14, 2014; Accepted August 16, 2014; Published September 30, 2014

 

Abstract

Turritopsis nutricula (T. nutricula) is the one of the known reported organisms that can revert its life cycle to the polyp stage even after becoming sexually mature, defining itself as the only immortal organism in the animal kingdom. Therefore, the animal is having prime importance in basic biological, aging, and biomedical researches. However, till date, the genome of this organism has not been sequenced and even there is no molecular phylogenetic study to reveal its close relatives. Here, using phylogenetic analysis based on available 16s rRNA gene and protein sequences of Cytochrome oxidase subunit-I (COI or COX1) of T. nutricula, we have predicted the closest relatives of the organism. While we found Nemopsis bachei could be closest organism based on COX1 gene sequence; T. dohrnii may be designated as the closest taxon to T. nutricula based on rRNA. Moreover, we have figured out four species that showed similar root distance based on COX1 protein sequence.

 

Keywords

Turritopsis nutricula, immortal jellyfish, trans-differentiation, phylogeny, relativeness

 

Citation

Devarapalli  et al. Bioinformation 10(9): 586-591 (2014)
 

Edited by

P Kangueane

 

ISSN

0973-2063

 

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

 

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.