Hypothetical mechanism of neuromast regeneration in zebrafish based on cell proliferation depending on local interactions

CURA COSTA, EMANUEL; CHARA OSVALDO; LAVALLE, NATALIA; LOPEZ-SCHIER HERNAN; GRIGERAA, TOMAS

Conferencia; Latin American Society for Developmental Biology (LASDB) meeting 2019; 2019

In contrast with most animal species, the freshwater zebrafish (Danio rerio) has remarkable regenerative capabilities. In particular, the neuromasts, planar organs composing the lateral line of this vertebrate, show robust regeneration after different laser ablation paradigms. What are the mechanisms driving neuromast regeneration in zebrafish are yet undisclosed. We here investigate this problem by developing a computational model within a Cellular Potts Model (CPM) formalism in which mechanisms of cell proliferation depending on local rules are tested. We performed qualitative and quantitative comparisons of the model simulations and previously obtained experimental data (Viader-Llargués et al., 2018. eLife. 7. pii: e30823. doi: 10.7554/eLife.30823) and we found that our model satisfactorily reproduces the phenomenology of the zebrafish neuromast regeneration caused by different kinds of ablation.