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Chemical Amputation and Regeneration of the Pharynx in the Planarian Schmidtea mediterranea
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Cell type transcriptome atlas for the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea
Christopher T Fincher1,2,3, Omri Wurtzel1,2, Thom de Hoog1,2
1Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
Science (New York, N.Y.)
|April 21, 2018
Summary
Researchers mapped the gene expression profiles of nearly all cell types in the regenerative planarian worm. This comprehensive single-cell RNA sequencing provides a blueprint for understanding complex animal biology and cell differentiation.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Biology
- Genomics
- Cell Biology
Background:
- Cellular identity and function are governed by the transcriptome.
- Planarians (Schmidtea mediterranea) are ideal models due to their diverse cell types, lineage progenitors, and inherent positional information.
Purpose of the Study:
- To create a comprehensive single-cell transcriptome atlas for the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea.
- To identify transcriptomes for known and novel cell types, including transitional states.
Main Methods:
- Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) was employed.
- Transcriptomic data was generated for 66,783 individual cells.
Main Results:
- Defined transcriptomes for a vast majority of planarian cell types.
- Identified previously unknown cell types and transitional states between stem and differentiated cells.
- Discovered regionally expressed genes within planarian muscle tissue, indicating positional information.
Conclusions:
- This study provides an unprecedented cellular and molecular map of a complex metazoan.
- The approach is scalable for generating atlases of potentially all cell types in diverse organisms.
- This resource will significantly advance the study of metazoan biology and regenerative processes.
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