Morphological, Molecular, and Hormonal Basis of Limb Regeneration across Pancrustacea

Regeneration is a developmental process that allows an organism to re-grow a lost body part. Historically, the most studied aspect of limb regeneration across Pancrustacea is its morphological basis and its dependence on successful molting. Although there are distinct morphological differences in regeneration processes between insects and crustaceans, in both groups the phenomenon is initiated via formation of a blastema, followed by proliferation, dedifferentiation, and redifferentiation of blastemal cells to generate a functional limb. In recent years, with the availability of sequence data and tools to manipulate gene expression, the emphasis of this field has shifted toward the genetic basis of limb regeneration. Among insects this focus is on genes that are known to be required during the development of legs in embryos. RNA interference-mediated functional studies conducted during regeneration of imaginal discs of Drosophila melanogaster, and nymphal legs of Gryllus bimaculatus reveal that several conserved pathways and transcription factors (Wingless, Decapentaplegic, Hedgehog, Dachshund) are required for successful regeneration. In contrast to studies on the regeneration of insects' limbs, work on crustaceans has focused on the hormonal basis of the re-growth of limbs. Regeneration in decapods, like Uca pugilator and Gecarcinus lateralis, occurs in discrete phases of growth in tandem with the stages of the molt cycle. Recent studies have shown that ecdysteroid hormone signaling is necessary for blastemal proliferation. Although the current research emphases of limb regeneration in insect and crustacean are fairly distinct, the results generated by functional studies of a wide array of regeneration genes will be beneficial for generating testable regeneration models.