2011
DOI: 10.1088/1478-3975/8/2/026003
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Memory and obesity affect the population dynamics of asexual freshwater planarians

Abstract: Asexual reproduction in multicellular organisms is a complex biophysical process that is not yet well understood quantitatively. Here, we report a detailed population study for the asexual freshwater planarian Schmidtea mediterranea, which can reproduce via transverse fission due to a large stem cell contingent. Our long-term observations of isolated non-interacting planarian populations reveal that the characteristic fission waiting time distributions for head and tail fragments differ significantly from each… Show more

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Cited by 21 publications
(39 citation statements)
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“…Fission is the sole mode of reproduction of the asexual planarians studied here, which poses the question of how this species creates population diversity. Where a planarian divides affects the fitness and reproductive behaviors of its offspring (7,(11)(12)(13). Therefore, understanding how fission location is regulated is an important evolutionary question to be answered.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
See 1 more Smart Citation
“…Fission is the sole mode of reproduction of the asexual planarians studied here, which poses the question of how this species creates population diversity. Where a planarian divides affects the fitness and reproductive behaviors of its offspring (7,(11)(12)(13). Therefore, understanding how fission location is regulated is an important evolutionary question to be answered.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…One must limit oneself to giving the general trends and looks of this phenomenon without trying to explain all the observed exceptions" [author translation] (10). Because where along the body axis a planarian divides affects the fitness and reproductive behaviors of its offspring (7,(11)(12)(13), understanding how fission location is regulated is an important question to be answered. Regarding the division process, Vandel described fission as a mechanical process, whereby the anterior and posterior parts act independently, with the anterior part rhythmically pulsing and the posterior part largely adhering to the substrate.…”
mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Most turbellarians have neoblasts (Newmark and Alvarado, 2000) which allow them to be good models for this type of research. Neoblasts also allow these multicellular organisms to reproduce asexually, primarily by transverse fission, which complicates the study of their demographic characteristics, whereby these studies are scarce and the data are highly variable (Egger et al, 2007;Mouton et al, 2009;Dunkel et al, 2011).…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Use of an inverted microscope greatly enhances stability because the weight of the chip is on top of the specimen, and all images reported in this paper were taken using an inverted microscope. The PIC enables the manipulation of planarians of various sizes (a few millimeters up to 1–2 centimeters), an important advantage because planarians can vary substantially in size depending on the species as well as environmental factors such as feeding frequency and temperature36. The agarose-coated PDMS membrane and plastic film are not permanently bonded at any point, and peeling apart the two layers releases the worm uninjured within seconds (see Methods).…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Immobilization of freshwater planarians, however, presents several unique challenges: Planarians are about an order of magnitude larger than C. elegans , have a squishy, readily deformed body, vary in size depending on the species, feeding state, last asexual reproduction event, and other factors36, and are significantly more photophobic than C. elegans or D. melanogaster larvae. These characteristics make it infeasible to apply existing microfluidic immobilization techniques directly to planarians, which prompted us to develop an alternative method.…”
mentioning
confidence: 99%