Germ cells are required for the successful propagation of sexually reproducing species. Understanding the mechanisms by which these cells are specified and how their totipotency is established and maintained has important biomedical and evolutionary implications. Freshwater planarians serve as fascinating models for studying these questions. They can regenerate germ cells from fragments of adult tissues that lack reproductive structures, suggesting that inductive signaling is involved in planarian germ cell specification. To study the development and regeneration of planarian germ cells, we have functionally characterized an ortholog of nanos, a gene required for germ cell development in diverse organisms, from Schmidtea mediterranea. In the hermaphroditic strain of this species, Smed-nanos mRNA is detected in developing, regenerating, and mature ovaries and testes. However, it is not detected in the vast majority of newly hatched planarians or in small tissue fragments that will ultimately regenerate germ cells, consistent with an epigenetic origin of germ cells. We show that Smed-nanos RNA interference (RNAi) results in failure to develop, regenerate, or maintain gonads in sexual planarians. Unexpectedly, Smed-nanos mRNA is also detected in presumptive testes primordia of asexual individuals that reproduce strictly by fission. These presumptive germ cells are lost after Smed-nanos RNAi, suggesting that asexual planarians specify germ cells, but their differentiation is blocked downstream of Smed-nanos function. Our results reveal a conserved function of nanos in germ cell development in planarians and suggest that these animals will serve as useful models for dissecting the molecular basis of epigenetic germ cell specification.epigenesis ͉ germ cell specification ͉ RNA interference ͉ Schmidtea mediterranea ͉ Platyhelminthes

In contrast to most well-studied model organisms, planarians have a remarkable ability to completely regenerate a functional nervous system from a pluripotent stem cell population. Thus, planarians provide a powerful model to identify genes required for adult neurogenesis in vivo. We analyzed the basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) family of transcription factors, many of which are crucial for nervous system development and have been implicated in human diseases. However, their potential roles in adult neurogenesis or central nervous system (CNS) function are not well understood. We identified 44 planarian bHLH homologs, determined their patterns of expression in the animal and assessed their functions using RNAi. We found nine bHLHs expressed in stem cells and neurons that are required for CNS regeneration. Our analyses revealed that homologs of coe, hes (hesl-3) and sim label progenitors in intact planarians, and following amputation we observed an enrichment of coe + and sim + progenitors near the wound site. RNAi knockdown of coe, hesl-3 or sim led to defects in CNS regeneration, including failure of the cephalic ganglia to properly pattern and a loss of expression of distinct neuronal subtype markers. Together, these data indicate that coe, hesl-3 and sim label neural progenitor cells, which serve to generate new neurons in uninjured or regenerating animals. Our study demonstrates that this model will be useful to investigate how stem cells interpret and respond to genetic and environmental cues in the CNS and to examine the role of bHLH transcription factors in adult tissue regeneration.

Freshwater planarians have prodigious regenerative abilities that enable them to form complete organisms from tiny body fragments. This plasticity is also exhibited by the planarian germ cell lineage. Unlike many model organisms in which germ cells are specified by localized determinants, planarian germ cells appear to be specified epigenetically, arising postembryonically from stem cells. The planarian Schmidtea mediterranea is well suited for investigating the mechanisms underlying epigenetic germ cell specification. Two strains of S. mediterranea exist: a hermaphroditic strain that reproduces sexually and an asexual strain that reproduces by means of transverse fission. To date, expressed sequence tags (ESTs) have been generated only from the asexual strain. To develop molecular reagents for studying epigenetic germ cell specification, we have sequenced 27,161 ESTs from two developmental stages of the hermaphroditic strain of S. mediterranea ; this collection of ESTs represents ≈10,000 unique transcripts. blast analysis of the assembled ESTs showed that 66% share similarity to sequences in public databases. We annotated the assembled ESTs using Gene Ontology terms as well as conserved protein domains and organized them in a relational database. To validate experimentally the Gene Ontology annotations, we used whole-mount in situ hybridization to examine the expression patterns of transcripts assigned to the biological process “reproduction.” Of the 53 genes in this category, 87% were expressed in the reproductive organs. In addition to its utility for studying germ cell development, this EST collection will be an important resource for annotating the planarian genome and studying this animal's amazing regenerative abilities.

Bioluminescent flashing is essential for firefly reproduction, yet the specific molecular mechanisms that control light production are not well understood. We report that light production by fireflies can be stimulated by nitric oxide (NO) gas in the presence of oxygen and that NO scavengers block bioluminescence induced by the neurotransmitter octopamine. NO synthase is robustly expressed in the firefly lantern in cells interposed between nerve endings and the light-producing photocytes. These results suggest that NO synthesis is a key determinant of flash control in fireflies.

BackgroundPlanarians are an attractive model organism for studying stem cell-based regeneration due to their ability to replace all of their tissues from a population of adult stem cells. The molecular toolkit for planarian studies currently includes the ability to study gene function using RNA interference (RNAi) and observe gene expression via in situ hybridizations. However, there are few antibodies available to visualize protein expression, which would greatly enhance analysis of RNAi experiments as well as allow further characterization of planarian cell populations using immunocytochemistry and other immunological techniques. Thus, additional, easy-to-use, and widely available monoclonal antibodies would be advantageous to study regeneration in planarians.ResultsWe have created seven monoclonal antibodies by inoculating mice with formaldehyde-fixed cells isolated from dissociated 3-day regeneration blastemas. These monoclonal antibodies can be used to label muscle fibers, axonal projections in the central and peripheral nervous systems, two populations of intestinal cells, ciliated cells, a subset of neoblast progeny, and discrete cells within the central nervous system as well as the regeneration blastema. We have tested these antibodies using eight variations of a formaldehyde-based fixation protocol and determined reliable protocols for immunolabeling whole planarians with each antibody. We found that labeling efficiency for each antibody varies greatly depending on the addition or removal of tissue processing steps that are used for in situ hybridization or immunolabeling techniques. Our experiments show that a subset of the antibodies can be used alongside markers commonly used in planarian research, including anti-SYNAPSIN and anti-SMEDWI, or following whole-mount in situ hybridization experiments.ConclusionsThe monoclonal antibodies described in this paper will be a valuable resource for planarian research. These antibodies have the potential to be used to better understand planarian biology and to characterize phenotypes following RNAi experiments. In addition, we present alterations to fixation protocols and demonstrate how these changes can increase the labeling efficiencies of antibodies used to stain whole planarians.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12861-014-0050-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.