1. Stem cell-dependent formation of a functional anterior regeneration pole in planarians requires Zic and Forkhead transcription factors.
- Author
-
Vogg MC, Owlarn S, Pérez Rico YA, Xie J, Suzuki Y, Gentile L, Wu W, and Bartscherer K
- Subjects
- Animals, Base Sequence, Gene Expression Profiling, Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental genetics, In Situ Hybridization, In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence, Microscopy, Confocal, Models, Biological, Molecular Sequence Data, RNA Interference, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Wnt Proteins antagonists & inhibitors, Wnt Proteins metabolism, Zinc Fingers genetics, Zinc Fingers physiology, Body Patterning physiology, Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental physiology, Head physiology, Planarians physiology, Regeneration physiology, Stem Cells physiology, Transcription Factors metabolism
- Abstract
Planarians can regenerate their head within days. This process depends on the direction of adult stem cells to wound sites and the orchestration of their progenitors to commit to appropriate lineages and to arrange into patterned tissues. We identified a zinc finger transcription factor, Smed-ZicA, as a downstream target of Smed-FoxD, a Forkhead transcription factor required for head regeneration. Smed-zicA and Smed-FoxD are co-expressed with the Wnt inhibitor notum and the Activin inhibitor follistatin in a cluster of cells at the anterior-most tip of the regenerating head - the anterior regeneration pole - and in surrounding stem cell progeny. Depletion of Smed-zicA and Smed-FoxD by RNAi abolishes notum and follistatin expression at the pole and inhibits head formation downstream of initial polarity decisions. We suggest a model in which ZicA and FoxD transcription factors synergize to control the formation of Notum- and Follistatin-producing anterior pole cells. Pole formation might constitute an early step in regeneration, resulting in a signaling center that orchestrates cellular events in the growing tissue., (Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2014
- Full Text
- View/download PDF