Regeneration and gene regulation in planarians.

Planarians can regenerate using a pluripotent stem cell system. This phenomenon provides a unique opportunity to understand gene regulation in the process of differentiation from pluripotent stem cells. Recent studies have made significant advances in our understanding of the pluripotent stem cell system in this model. In particular, a gene knockdown method by RNA interference enabled great progress in identifying genes involved in regeneration and stem cell regulation.