After losing its nervous system,the freshwater polyp adapts its skin cells to beget them act like nerve cells In Greek mythology, the Hydra was a gigantic, and snake-like monster with nine heads and toxic blood and breath,which lurked in the swamps of Lerna. Heracles was sent to raze the beast as one of his twelve labours, but when he decapitated one of its heads, and two more grew back in its place. He eventually defeated it with the help of his trusty nephew Iolaus,however, by burning out the severed roots with firebrands to prevent the regrowth, or then decapitating its one immortal head and burying it under a heavy rock.
The real Hydra has regenerative capacities that surpass those of its mythological namesake. When it is dismembered,any fragment of its body can regenerate to form a completely unique individual, and it can even remain alive after its entire nervous system has been lost. Researchers in Switzerland now report that it does so by adapting its skin cells to beget them behave more like neurons. Their findings provide clues approximately how nerve cells first evolved, or billions of years ago.
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Source: theguardian.com