Bipolar Planarians in a Stock Culture

Jenkins, Marie M.

doi:10.1126/science.142.3596.1187

Cited by 10 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Very thin cut fragments sometimes regenerate with symmetrical double heads, although never double tails [5] . Also, really long worms sometime spontaneously produce double heads after fissioning [82] . Such failures represent excellent opportunities for dissecting the molecular mechanisms that drive planarian regeneration as well as guiding the choice of signaling modes used for modeling this system.…”

Section: Planarian Experiments: the Current Datasetmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling Planarian Regeneration: A Primer for Reverse-Engineering the Worm

Lobo¹,

Beane²,

Levin

2012

PLoS Comput Biol

106

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A mechanistic understanding of robust self-assembly and repair capabilities of complex systems would have enormous implications for basic evolutionary developmental biology as well as for transformative applications in regenerative biomedicine and the engineering of highly fault-tolerant cybernetic systems. Molecular biologists are working to identify the pathways underlying the remarkable regenerative abilities of model species that perfectly regenerate limbs, brains, and other complex body parts. However, a profound disconnect remains between the deluge of high-resolution genetic and protein data on pathways required for regeneration, and the desired spatial, algorithmic models that show how self-monitoring and growth control arise from the synthesis of cellular activities. This barrier to progress in the understanding of morphogenetic controls may be breached by powerful techniques from the computational sciences—using non-traditional modeling approaches to reverse-engineer systems such as planaria: flatworms with a complex bodyplan and nervous system that are able to regenerate any body part after traumatic injury. Currently, the involvement of experts from outside of molecular genetics is hampered by the specialist literature of molecular developmental biology: impactful collaborations across such different fields require that review literature be available that presents the key functional capabilities of important biological model systems while abstracting away from the often irrelevant and confusing details of specific genes and proteins. To facilitate modeling efforts by computer scientists, physicists, engineers, and mathematicians, we present a different kind of review of planarian regeneration. Focusing on the main patterning properties of this system, we review what is known about the signal exchanges that occur during regenerative repair in planaria and the cellular mechanisms that are thought to underlie them. By establishing an engineering-like style for reviews of the molecular developmental biology of biomedically important model systems, significant fresh insights and quantitative computational models will be developed by new collaborations between biology and the information sciences.

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Section: Planarian Experiments: the Current Datasetmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modeling Planarian Regeneration: A Primer for Reverse-Engineering the Worm

Lobo¹,

Beane²,

Levin

2012

PLoS Comput Biol

106

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“…However, Jenkins (1963) reported no less than four of such bipolar specimens from a single culture of mature G. dorotocephala that had not been subjected to any experimental treatment. One of these worms fissioned and thus gave rise to two animals, each with one head.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…(2017), as well as Levin (2014 and references therein). That such second or third round amputated fragments regenerated a head at both ends is unsurprising in view of the fact that the pieces contained two pharynges oriented in opposite directions (see Jenkins, 1963; Levin, 2014, and references therein; Morokuma et al., 2017). In our experience, such double‐headed animals with two pharynges behave as two separate, independent individuals.…”

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confidence: 99%

Bipolarity in planarians is not induced by space travel

Sluys

Stocchino

2017

Regeneration

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“…For example, it is known [8] that very thin cut fragments sometimes regenerate with double heads although never double tails [16] and that very long worms sometime spontaneously produce two heads after fissioning [55]. These possibilities are not yet described by the model.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Continuum percolation theory of epimorphic regeneration

Garcı́a-Morales¹

2017

Preprint

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A biophysical model of epimorphic regeneration based on a continuum percolation process of fully penetrable disks in two dimensions is proposed. All cells within a randomly chosen disk of the regenerating organism are assumed to receive a signal in the form of a circular wave as a result of the action/reconfiguration of neoblasts and neoblast-derived mesenchymal cells in the blastema. These signals trigger the growth of the organism, whose cells read, on a faster time scale, the electric polarization state responsible for their differentiation and the resulting morphology. In the long time limit, the process leads to a morphological attractor that depends on experimentally accessible control parameters governing the blockage of cellular gap junctions and, therefore, the connectivity of the multicellular ensemble. When this connectivity is weakened, positional information is degraded leading to more symmetrical structures. This general theory is applied to the specifics of planaria regeneration. Computations and asymptotic analyses made with the model show that it correctly describes a significant subset of the most prominent experimental observations, notably anterior-posterior polarization (and its loss) or the formation of four-headed planaria.

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Bipolar Planarians in a Stock Culture

Cited by 10 publications

References 5 publications

Modeling Planarian Regeneration: A Primer for Reverse-Engineering the Worm

Modeling Planarian Regeneration: A Primer for Reverse-Engineering the Worm

Bipolarity in planarians is not induced by space travel

Continuum percolation theory of epimorphic regeneration

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