The planarian Schmidtea mediterranea as a model for epigenetic germ cell specification: analysis of ESTs from the hermaphroditic strain.

ABSTRACT: Freshwater planarians have prodigious regenerative abilities that enable them to form complete organisms from tiny body fragments. This plasticity is also exhibited by the planarian germ cell lineage. Unlike many model organisms in which germ cells are specified by localized determinants, planarian germ cells appear to be specified epigenetically, arising postembryonically from stem cells. The planarian Schmidtea mediterranea is well suited for investigating the mechanisms underlying epigenetic germ cell specification. Two strains of S. mediterranea exist: a hermaphroditic strain that reproduces sexually and an asexual strain that reproduces by means of transverse fission. To date, expressed sequence tags (ESTs) have been generated only from the asexual strain. To develop molecular reagent

SUBMITTER: Zayas RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1317986 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature