teashirt is required for head-versus-tail regeneration polarity in planarians.
Regeneration requires that the identities of new cells are properly specified to replace missing tissues. The Wnt signaling pathway serves a central role in specifying posterior cell fates during planarian regeneration. We identified a gene encoding a homolog of the Teashirt family of zinc-finger proteins in the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea to be a target of Wnt signaling in intact animals and at posterior-facing wounds. Inhibition of Smed-teashirt (teashirt) by RNA interference (RNAi) resulted in the regeneration of heads in place of tails, a phenotype previously observed with RNAi of the Wnt pathway genes β-catenin-1, wnt1, Dvl-1/2 or wntless. teashirt was required for β-catenin-1-dependent activation of posterior genes during regeneration. These findings identify teashirt as a transcriptional target of Wnt signaling required for Wnt-mediated specification of posterior blastemas.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, MIT Biology and Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, 9 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
Jared H
JH
Owen
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, MIT Biology and Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, 9 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
Daniel E
DE
Wagner
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, MIT Biology and Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, 9 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
Chun-Chieh
CC
Chen
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, MIT Biology and Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, 9 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA Department of Molecular Biosciences, Northwestern University, 2205 Tech Drive, Hogan Hall Room 2-144, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
Christian P
CP
Petersen
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, MIT Biology and Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, 9 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA reddien@wi.mit.edu.
Peter W
PW
Reddien
D000818:Animals; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D006257:Head / Q000502:physiology; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D017403:In Situ Hybridization; D010932:Planarians / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D034622:RNA Interference; D012038:Regeneration / Q000502:physiology*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D013623:Tail / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D060449:Wnt Signaling Pathway / Q000502:physiology*; D016335:Zinc Fingers / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*
D018398:Homeodomain Proteins
Neoblasts; Patterning; Planarians; Regeneration; Teashirt; Wnt