Skip to main content
Publications | Persons | Institutes | Projects
[ report an error in this record ]basket (0): add | show Print this page

The regeneration system of planarians
Agata, K. (2001). The regeneration system of planarians. Belg. J. Zool. 131(Suppl. 1): 101
In: Belgian Journal of Zoology. Koninklijke Belgische Vereniging voor Dierkunde = Société royale zoologique de Belgique: Gent. ISSN 0777-6276; e-ISSN 2295-0451, more
Also appears in:
Saló, E.; Watson, N.; Schockaert, E. (Ed.) (2001). Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on the Biology of the Turbellaria, Barcelona, Spain, June 2000. Belgian Journal of Zoology, 131(Suppl. 1). Koninklijke Belgische Vereniging voor Dierkunde = Société royale zoologique de Belgique: Diepenbeek. 236 pp., more
Peer reviewed article  

Available in  Author 
Document type: Summary

Keywords
    Marine/Coastal; Fresh water; Terrestrial

Author  Top 
  • Agata, K.

Abstract
    Neoblasts, which are classically defined as prospective totipotent stem cells containing germ plasm-like granules, supporting planarian regeneration, now have been identified by expression of the DjvlgA and DjPTK3 genes, coding for a vasa-type ATP-dependent RNA helicase and a receptor-type tyrosin kinase, respectively. DjvlgA- and DjPTK3-positive cells are distributed in the mesenchymal space from head to tail, participating in formation of blastema and organ rudiments during regeneration. In X-ray-irradiated planarians, which had lost regenerative capacity, the number of DjvlgA-expressing cells decreased drastically. When fragments containing neoblasts are transplanted into X-ray irradiated hosts, they can restore regenerative ability. We have shown propagation and migration of stem cells by chimeric analysis. Interestingly, we found that neoblasts begin to transcribe tissue-specific genes in a position-dependent manner, while they are still in the mesenchymal space. This occurs prior to their migration to the organ rudiments or blastema, and at a time when they are not yet morphologically distinguishable as neoblasts. We speculate that the mRNAs transcribed in the stem cells may be trapped in a complex with RNA helicase(s), forming a "chromatoid body", and are not translated into protein until they migrate to the rudiment. After formation of the rudiments, these committed cells may receive a signal for organogenesis and then start to translate these mRNAs as well as to express pattern formation genes for organogenesis.

All data in the Integrated Marine Information System (IMIS) is subject to the VLIZ privacy policy Top | Author