Gene expression driving early regeneration in Lineus sanguineus (Nemertea)

ZATTARA, EDUARDO E.

Washington, DC

Seminario; Invertebrate Zoology Department No Bones Seminar Series; 2020

Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History

Lineus sanguineus is one of the few species of Nemertea able to regenerate a head after amputation. In this seminar, I present the results of an experiment dissecting the transcriptional bases of early regeneration. Using RNAseq, I characterized the transcriptional profiles of the first 4 days after amputation in anterior and posterior wound surfaces. The data show that early gene expression patterns are strikingly different between posterior and anterior regeneration: early posterior regeneration involves a larger number of genes (48.6% of tested ?genes?) than early anterior regeneration (19.7%), but early anterior regeneration involves a much more diverse set of gene co-expression behaviors (12 vs 5 clusters). These results imply that, from the very beginning, the recently evolved ability to regenerate a head deploys developmental and genomic processes that are different from those of ancestral posterior regeneration.