title: Planarian resistance to blades and bugs.
abstract: Planarians famously can regenerate after decapitation. In this issue, Abnave et al. (2014) find they resist infection by multiple bacterial species pathogenic to humans, Drosophila and C. elegans, including M. tuberculosis. These results identify a conserved gene controlling phagocytosis and establish planarians as a powerful system for analyzing host-pathogen interactions.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biosciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA; Robert Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA. Electronic address: christian-p-petersen@northwestern.edu.
authors.forename: Christian P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Petersen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D015801:Helminth Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D016952:Legionella pneumophila / Q000502:physiology*; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins / Q000276:immunology*; D010587:Phagocytosis; D010932:Planarians / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology*; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D015801:Helminth Proteins; D008869:Microtubule-Associated Proteins