A Swiss research team has said it has solved a mystery about the Hydra, which may lead to the treatment of cancerous tumors in humans.
Hydra can restore the missing parts of its body, a feature discovered by the naturalist Abraham Trimble in Geneva about 300 years ago.
A research team led by Brigitte Galiot, a professor of genetics at the University of Geneva, found two opposite activities to compensate for the missing parts, one of which helps to grow, the gene "Wnt3", and the other prevents the formation of superfluous, the protein "Sp5".
Although the research led by Galiot was aimed at interpreting a puzzle about Hydra, she says their finding "can be useful in resisting cancerous tumors in humans."