The planarian wound epidermis gene equinox is required for blastema formation in regeneration.
M Lucila ScimoneJennifer K CloutierChloe L MaybrunPeter W ReddienPublished in: Nature communications (2022)
Regeneration often involves the formation of a blastema, an outgrowth or regenerative bud formed at the plane of injury where missing tissues are produced. The mechanisms that trigger blastema formation are therefore fundamental for regeneration. Here, we identify a gene, which we named equinox, that is expressed within hours of injury in the planarian wound epidermis. equinox encodes a predicted secreted protein that is conserved in many animal phyla. Following equinox inhibition, amputated planarians fail to maintain wound-induced gene expression and to subsequently undergo blastema outgrowth. Associated with these defects is an inability to reestablish lost positional information needed for missing tissue specification. Our findings link the planarian wound epidermis, through equinox, to regeneration of positional information and blastema formation, indicating a broad regulatory role of the wound epidermis in diverse regenerative contexts.
Keyphrases
- stem cells
- wound healing
- gene expression
- surgical site infection
- mesenchymal stem cells
- cell therapy
- transcription factor
- genome wide
- dna methylation
- copy number
- high glucose
- tissue engineering
- endothelial cells
- diabetic rats
- social media
- oxidative stress
- genome wide identification
- binding protein
- genome wide analysis