Planaria Regeneration

Instructor:

Sally Hoskins
City College of New York

Focus:

Five papers from the laboratories of Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado and Peter Reddien. These papers were selected from a large set of possible options to demonstrate the means by which a new technique—the use of RNAi approaches to inhibit gene expression—could allow novel approaches to an “old” developmental system, the regenerating planarian. The first papers establish the utility of the method and the third reports a fascinating phenotype generated via an RNAi based regeneration screen. The last two papers were published back-to-back in Science in 2008, offering the possibility of comparing how two different lab groups ultimately reached similar conclusions about the role of beta-catenin in regeneration polarity.

Overview:

Applicable for Courses:

Developmental biology, stem cell biology, cell biology, introductory biology

Educational Level:

Intermediate to upper level biology students

Roadmap Objectives:

- Article: Double-stranded RNA specifically disrupts gene expression during planarian regeneration. Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado and Phillip A. Newmark. (1999) PNAS 96(9): 5049-5054.
- Content area/major concepts: RNA interference
  Gene expression
  Pattern formation
- Methods or technology used to obtain data: RNA interference Gene expression
- How the CREATE strategy was used:
- Biggest teaching challenge:
- Article: Ingestion of bacterially expressed double-stranded RNA inhibits gene expression in planarians. P. A. Newmark, P.W. Reddeien, F. Cebria, A. Sanchez Alvarado. (2003) PNAS 100(suppl 1): 118861-11865.
- Content area/major concepts: Similar to the first article
- Methods or technology used to obtain data:
- How the CREATE strategy was used:
- Biggest teaching challenge:
- Article: Article
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- Article: FGFR-related gene nou-darake restricts brain tissues to the head region of planarians. (2002) F. Cebrià, C. Kobayashi, Y. Umesono, M. Nakazawa, K. Mineta, K. Ikeo, T. Gojobori, M. Itoh M. Taira, A. Sánchez Alvarado A, K. Agata. Nature. 419(6907): 620-4.
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- Methods or technology used to obtain data:
- How the CREATE strategy was used:
- Biggest teaching challenge:
- Article: Beta-catenin defines head versus tail identity during planarian regeneration and homeostasis. K. A. Gurley, J. C. Rink, A. Sanchez Alvarado. (2008) Science 319 (5861): 323-7.
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- How the CREATE strategy was used:
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- Article: Smed-betacatenin-1 is required for anterioposterior blastema polarity in planarian regeneration. (2009) Science 319 (5861): 327-330.
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- Methods or technology used to obtain data:
- How the CREATE strategy was used:
- Biggest teaching challenge:

Advice for Using Module/Activity:

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