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Updated: Dec 10, 2025

Planarian Scrunching as a Quantitative Behavioral Readout for Noxious Stimuli Sensing
Published on: July 30, 2020
Nervous system and tissue polarity dynamically adapt to new morphologies in planaria
Johanna Bischof1, Margot E Day1, Kelsie A Miller1
1Allen Discovery Center at Tufts University, 200 Boston Ave., Suite 4600, Medford, MA, 01915, USA.
Abstract:
The coordination of tissue-level polarity with organism-level polarity is crucial in development, disease, and regeneration. Here, we characterize a new example of large-scale control of dynamic remodeling of body polarity. Exploiting the flexibility of the body plan in regenerating planarians, we used mirror duplication of the primary axis to show how established tissue-level polarity adapts to new organism-level polarity. Characterization of epithelial planar cell polarity revealed a remarkable reorientation of tissue polarity in double-headed planarians. This reorientation of cilia occurs even following irradiation-induced loss of all stem cells, suggesting independence of the polarity change from the formation of new cells. The presence of the two heads plays an important role in regulating the rate of change in overall polarity. We further present data that suggest that the nervous system itself adapts its polarity to match the new organismal anatomy as revealed by changes in nerve transport driving distinct regenerative outcomes. Thus, in planaria tissue-level polarity can dynamically reorient to match the organism-level anatomical configuration.
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