Gekko gecko sequence reads for tail regeneration study
Lizards such as the tokay gecko (Gekko gecko) use tail autotomy to distract predators. Autotomy is generally followed by tail regeneration. The processes taking place in the regenerating tail develop new, complex tissues from a group of blastemal cells. These features make the tokay gecko a useful amniotes model for studying tissue regeneration. A major question is whether regeneration in the adult involves the re-activation of embryonic processes. This study aims to uncover mechanisms of the molecular regulation of tail regeneration in the tokay gecko using tissue and single-cell mRNA sequencing and compare them with that of embryonic tail. Six stages of tail regeneration (0, 4, 8, 16, 20, 28 days post-autotomy/dpa) and one stage of embryonic tail development (16 days post-oviposition/dpo) were sequenced at the tissue level. In addition, three stages of regenerated tail ( 16, 24, and 28 dpa) and two stages of embryonic developing tail (3 and 7 dpo ) were sequenced at the single cell level. The analysis consisted of identifying molecular regulatory genes, gene enrichment, and molecular pathways at each stage of tail regeneration and compared them with the embryonic tail of Tokay Gecko.