Research team seeks to unravel flatworm regeneration
Tuesday, July 21, 2009 - 11:42
in Biology & Nature
Planarian flatworms are only a few millimetres up to a few centimetres in length, live in freshwater and are the object of intense research, because they possess the extraordinary ability to regenerate lost tissue with the help of their stem cells (neoblasts) and even grow an entirely new worm out of minute amputated body parts. Now researchers from the Max Delbrueck Centre in Berlin, Germany together with researchers in the US and Canada present the first comprehensive catalogue of small RNAs of planaria, elements that regulate gene expression. They also have identified small RNAs which may play a role in regeneration and stem cell function, Nikolaus Rajewsky from the MDC points out...