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Wnt signaling regulates primary body axis formation across the Metazoa, with high Wnt signaling specifying posterior identity. Whether a common Wnt-driven transcriptional program accomplishes this broad role is poorly understood. We identified genes acutely affected after Wnt signaling inhibition in the posterior of two regenerative species, the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea and the acoel Hofstenia miamia, which are separated by >550 million years of evolution. Wnt signaling was found to maintain positional information in muscle and regional gene expression in multiple differentiated cell types. sp5, Hox genes, and Wnt pathway components are down-regulated rapidly after β-catenin RNAi in both species. Brachyury, a vertebrate Wnt target, also displays Wnt-dependent expression in Hofstenia. sp5 inhibits trunk gene expression in the tail of planarians and acoels, promoting separate tail-trunk body domains. A planarian posterior Hox gene, Post-2d, promotes normal tail regeneration. We propose that common regulation of a small gene set-Hox, sp5, and Brachyury-might underlie the widespread utilization of Wnt signaling in primary axis patterning across the Bilateria.

Planarians are flatworms capable of regenerating any missing body region. This capacity is mediated by neoblasts, a proliferative cell population that contains pluripotent stem cells. Although population-based studies have revealed many neoblast characteristics, whether functionally distinct classes exist within this population is unclear. Here, we used high-dimensional single-cell transcriptional profiling from over a thousand individual neoblasts to directly compare gene expression fingerprints during homeostasis and regeneration. We identified two prominent neoblast classes that we named ζ (zeta) and σ (sigma). Zeta-neoblasts encompass specified cells that give rise to an abundant postmitotic lineage, including epidermal cells, and are not required for regeneration. By contrast, sigma-neoblasts proliferate in response to injury, possess broad lineage capacity, and can give rise to zeta-neoblasts. These findings indicate that planarian neoblasts comprise two major and functionally distinct cellular compartments.

Regeneration requires both potential and instructions for tissue replacement. In planarians, pluripotent stem cells have the potential to produce all new tissue. The identities of the cells that provide regeneration instructions are unknown. Here, we report that position control genes (PCGs) that control regeneration and tissue turnover are expressed in a subepidermal layer of nonneoblast cells. These subepidermal cells coexpress many PCGs. We propose that these subepidermal cells provide a system of body coordinates and positional information for regeneration, and identify them to be muscle cells of the planarian body wall. Almost all planarian muscle cells express PCGs, suggesting a dual function: contraction and control of patterning. PCG expression is dynamic in muscle cells after injury, even in the absence of neoblasts, suggesting that muscle is instructive for regeneration. We conclude that planarian regeneration involves two highly flexible systems: pluripotent neoblasts that can generate any new cell type and muscle cells that provide positional instructions for the regeneration of any body region.

Author(s): M. Lucila Scimone [1, 2, 3]; Lauren E. Cote [1, 2, 3]; Peter W. Reddien (corresponding author) [1, 2, 3] The ability to regenerate missing body parts exists throughout [...]

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ydbio.2010.06.017 Byline: Danielle Wenemoser (a)(b), Peter W. Reddien (a) Keywords: Regeneration; Planaria; Stem cells; Neoblasts; Wound; Blastema Abstract: Regeneration requires signaling from a wound site for detection of the wound and a mechanism that determines the nature of the injury to specify the appropriate regenerative response. Wound signals and tissue responses to wounds that elicit regeneration remain poorly understood. Planarians are able to regenerate from essentially any type of injury and present a novel system for the study of wound responses in regeneration initiation. Newly developed molecular and cellular tools now enable study of regeneration initiation using the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea. Planarian regeneration requires adult stem cells called neoblasts and amputation triggers two peaks in neoblast mitoses early in regeneration. We demonstrate that the first mitotic peak is a body-wide response to any injury and that a second, local, neoblast response is induced only when injury results in missing tissue. This second response was characterized by recruitment of neoblasts to wounds, even in areas that lack neoblasts in the intact animal. Subsequently, these neoblasts were induced to divide and differentiate near the wound, leading to formation of new tissue. We conclude that there exist two functionally distinct signaling phases of the stem cell wound response that distinguish between simple injury and situations that require the regeneration of missing tissue. Author Affiliation: (a) Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Whitehead Institute, and Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 9 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA (b) Department of Animal Behavior, Institute of Biology, Freie Universitat Berlin, Takustr. 6, 14195 Berlin, Germany Article History: Received 25 May 2010; Accepted 11 June 2010

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2009.11.035 Byline: Christian P. Petersen (1), Peter W. Reddien (1)(2)(3) Abstract: How animals establish and pattern the primary body axis is one of the most fundamental problems in biology. Data from diverse deuterostomes (frog, fish, mouse, and amphioxus) and from planarians (protostomes) suggest that Wnt signaling through [beta]-catenin controls posterior identity during body plan formation in most bilaterally symmetric animals. Wnt signaling also influences primary axis polarity of pre-bilaterian animals, indicating that an axial patterning role for Wnt signaling predates the evolution of bilaterally symmetric animals. The use of posterior Wnt signaling and anterior Wnt inhibition might be a unifying principle of body plan development in most animals. Author Affiliation: (1) Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, 9 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA (2) Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA (3) Howard Hughes Medical Institute

The genes egl-1, ced-9, ced-4, and ced-3 play major roles in programmed cell death in Caenorhabditis elegans. To identify genes that have more subtle activities, we sought mutations that confer strong cell-death defects in a genetically sensitized mutant background. Specifically, we screened for mutations that enhance the cell-death defects caused by a partial loss-of-function allele of the ced-3 caspase gene. We identified mutations in two genes not previously known to affect cell death, dpl-1 and mcd-1 (modifier of cell death), dpl-1 encodes the C. elegans homolog of DP, the human E2F-heterodimerization partner. By testing genes known to interact with dpl-1, we identified roles in cell death for four additional genes: eft-1 E2F, lin-35 Rb, lin-37 Mip40, and lin-52 dLin52, mcd-1 encodes a novel protein that contains one zinc finger and that is synthetically required with lin-35 Rb for animal viability, dpl-1 and mcd-1 act with eft-1 E2F and lin-35 Rb to promote programmed cell death and do so by regulating the killing process rather than by affecting the decision between survival and death. We propose that the DPL-1 DP, MCD-1 zinc finger, EFL-1 E2F, LIN-35 Rb, LIN-37 Mip40, and LIN-52 dLin52 proteins act together in transcriptional regulation to promote programmed cell death.

Author(s): Peter W. Reddien [1]; Scott Cameron [1, 2]; H. Robert Horvitz (corresponding author) [1] In the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans programmed cell death requires the killer genes egl-1 , ced-4 [...]