This one only has two, but Wolfgang Jacob and Bernd Schierwater, of Yale University and Hanover University of Veterinary Medicine, respectively, have created jellyfish with up to 12 heads.
The multiple-headed hydromedusa (Eleutheria dichotoma) specimens were created by using RNA inhibition or antisense oligonucleotides to silence various homeobox genes (Cnox-2 and Cnox-3) that are involved in head formation.
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Scientists have created a jellyfish with twelve heads in a lab at Hanover University of Veterinary Medicine in Germany. Bernd Schierwater and colleague Wolfgang Jakob (or "God" as they like to collectively call themselves) claim to have created the freakish monstrosity to study how colonies of…
It's mad, I tell you, madddd! Mad scientists these days. Always going around saying, "Hey, you know how that animal could be better? If it had another head. Muahahaha!"
Anyway, the (possibly mad) scientists Wolfgang Jakob and Bernd Schierwater wanted to know more about the genes that determine…
There are 32 new papers that just went live on PLoS ONE and here are a couple of titles that got my immediate attention:
Changing Hydrozoan Bauplans by Silencing Hox-Like Genes by Wolfgang Jakob and Bernd Schierwater:
Regulatory genes of the Antp class have been a major factor for the invention and…
I'm going to briefly summarize an interesting new article on cnidarian Hox genes…unfortunately, it requires a bit of background to put it in context, so bear with me for a moment.
First you need to understand what Hox genes are. They are transcription factors that use a particular DNA binding…
As far as I know, jellyfish and other cnidarians have no structure that could reasonably be called a "head." Could somebody please explain to me what this is all about? I read the linked article but have delved no further.
Of course, jellyfish and other cnidaria do not have heads as such.
But, as explained in the abstract of the paper by Jacob and Schierwater, and in the legend to figure 1, inhibition of the Cnox-3 gene resulted in duplication of the oral pole, while inhibition of Cnox-2 led to the formation of multiple oral poles.
The oral pole is a pointed structure containing an opening which functions as a mouth.