Water Jellyfish

• It was from this jellyfish that green fluorescent protein, GFP, was isolated; inserted into the genome of other organisms, it makes it possible to light up cells, proteins and living processes in real time: one of the tools that has transformed modern biology.
• That discovery was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2008.
• The jellyfish emits its blue-green light around the rim of the bell when disturbed, though at sea the effect passes unnoticed by the naked eye.
• Green fluorescent protein, GFP, came from this jellyfish and revolutionised biology: it allows you to see where and when a protein is made inside a living cell.
• The 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to Osamu Shimomura, Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien for its discovery and development.
• Shimomura spent the summer of 1961 collecting jellyfish at Friday Harbor and squeezing their rims. One day he tipped the extract into the sink and it flashed: the seawater contained calcium, and that is how he discovered aequorin.
• In 1993 Chalfie showed that the GFP gene could be inserted into other organisms and that they would make the protein themselves, first in the bacterium E. coli and then in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans.
• Tsien later developed variants in every colour, with names such as mCherry, mPlum, mOrange and mStrawberry.
• Its bioluminescent organ lies around the rim of the bell, and its stinging cells have no effect on people.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - no skeleton (gelatinous cnidarian)

Habitat and environment

Coastal waters of the north-eastern Pacific

Sources consulted: Wikipedia (es): Aequorea victoria

The pins mark the parks and dive sites where its presence is documented.