Silenced Gene In Worm Shows Role In Regeneration

Silenced Gene In Worm Shows Role In Regeneration: "Elimination of smedwi-2 not only leads to an inability to mount a regenerative response after amputation, but also to the eventual demise of unamputated animals along a reproducible series of events, that is, regression of the head tip, curling of the body and tissue disintegration. These defects are very similar to what is observed after the planarian stem cells are destroyed by lethal doses of irradiation. The key difference, however, is that the irradiation-like defects observed in animals devoid of smedwi-2 occur even though the stem cells are still present in the organism."