title: Dissecting planarian central nervous system regeneration by the expression of neural-specific genes.
abstract: The planarian central nervous system (CNS) can be used as a model for studying neural regeneration in higher organisms. Despite its simple structure, recent studies have shown that the planarian CNS can be divided into several molecular and functional domains defined by the expression of different neural genes. Remarkably, a whole animal, including the molecularly complex CNS, can regenerate from a small piece of the planarian body. In this study, a collection of neural markers has been used to characterize at the molecular level how the planarian CNS is rebuilt. Planarian CNS is composed of an anterior brain and a pair of ventral nerve cords that are distinct and overlapping structures in the head region. During regeneration, 12 neural markers have been classified as early, mid-regeneration and late expression genes depending on when they are upregulated in the regenerative blastema. Interestingly, the results from this study show that the comparison of the expression patterns of different neural genes supports the view that at day one of regeneration, the new brain appears within the blastema, whereas the pre-existing ventral nerve cords remain in the old tissues. Three stages in planarian CNS regeneration are suggested.
authors.affiliation: Evolutionary Regeneration Biology Group, RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology, 2-2-3 Minatojima-minamimachi, Chuo-ku, Kobe 650-0047, Japan.
authors.forename: Francesc
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cebrià
authors.forename: Masumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakazawa
authors.forename: Katsuhiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mineta
authors.forename: Kazuho
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ikeo
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gojobori
authors.forename: Kiyokazu
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Agata
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D007118:Immunoassay; D017403:In Situ Hybridization; D008954:Models, Biological; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009414:Nerve Growth Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D009416:Nerve Regeneration / Q000502:physiology*; D000075388:Netrin-1; D010932:Planarians / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D025521:Tumor Suppressor Proteins
chemical_list: D009414:Nerve Growth Factors; D025521:Tumor Suppressor Proteins; D000075388:Netrin-1