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Updated: Jul 28, 2026

Pharmacological and Functional Genetic Assays to Manipulate Regeneration of the Planarian Dugesia japonica
Published on: August 31, 2011
Genetic differentiation within and between populations of a hermaphroditic freshwater planarian
N Pongratz1, L Gerace, N K Michiels
1Max-Planck-Institut for behavioural physiology, Seewiesen, D-82319 Starnberg, Germany.
Abstract:
Dispersal of individuals is an important factor that can influence genetic differentiation between populations. The hermaphroditic freshwater planarian Schmidtea polychroainhabits shallow regions of lakes and streams, in which they appear to be continuously distributed. In the present study we used three highly polymorphic markers for analysing small-scale and large-scale genetic structure within one, and between four natural lake populations. Genetic differentiation could already be observed between samples collected at least 13 m apart, but not between neighbouring samples, and was most pronounced between samples from different lakes. Probably due to the high variance in F(ST)values, a significant correlation between genetic differentiation and geographic distance could not be observed. These results show that individual dispersal of S. polychroa is limited, but that there is gene flow between subpopulations from the same lake. They further suggest that long-distance dispersal and gene flow between lakes, if present, is not a common process in S. polychroa.
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