Activin-2 is required for regeneration of polarity on the planarian anterior-posterior axis.

ABSTRACT: Planarians are flatworms and can perform whole-body regeneration. This ability involves a mechanism to distinguish between anterior-facing wounds that require head regeneration and posterior-facing wounds that require tail regeneration. How this head-tail regeneration polarity decision is made is studied to identify principles underlying tissue-identity specification in regeneration. We report that inhibition of activin-2, which encodes an Activin-like signaling ligand, resulted in the regeneration of ectopic posterior-facing heads following amputation. During tissue turnover in uninjured planarians, positional information is constitutively expressed in muscle to maintain proper patterning. Positional information includes Wnts expressed in the posterior and Wnt antagonists expressed in the

SUBMITTER: Cloutier JK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8057570 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature