Work

Muscle and neuronal guidepost-like cells facilitate planarian visual system regeneration

Year: 2020

Type: article

Abstract: Guiding regeneration Many adult organisms can regenerate neural circuits after injury. However, it is not clear which guidance mechanisms operate to promote axon path finding in the adult. Scimone et al. addressed this question by investigating regeneration of the planarian visual system (see the Perspective by Roberts-Galbraith). Distinct muscle cell populations were found in close association with photoreceptor axons that, together with a neuron class, facilitated visual system assembly after diverse injuries or eye transplantations. These cells exhibited features similar to embryonic guidepost cells and were specified independently of eyes in precise locations by the action of adult positional information cues. Absence of these guidepost-like cells was associated with defective neuronal wiring in regeneration. Science , this issue p. eaba3203 ; see also p. 1428

Source: Science

DOI: 10.1126/science.aba3203

Authors: M. Lucila Scimone, Kutay D. Atabay, Christopher T. Fincher, Ashley R. Bonneau, Dayan J. Li, Peter W. Reddien

Institutions: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Language: English

Topic: Planarian Biology and Electrostimulation

Subfield: Molecular Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, National Institute of General Medical Sciences

Awards: Medical Scientist Training Program, Pre-Doctoral Training in Biological Sciences