CAS Key Laboratory of Genomic and Precision Medicine, Collaborative Innovation Center of Genetics and Development, College of Future Technology, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
China National Center for Bioinformation, Beijing, 100101, China.
Nat Commun. 2023 Jun 2;14(1):3205. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-39016-0.
Whole-body regeneration of planarians is a natural wonder but how it occurs remains elusive. It requires coordinated responses from each cell in the remaining tissue with spatial awareness to regenerate new cells and missing body parts. While previous studies identified new genes essential to regeneration, a more efficient screening approach that can identify regeneration-associated genes in the spatial context is needed. Here, we present a comprehensive three-dimensional spatiotemporal transcriptomic landscape of planarian regeneration. We describe a pluripotent neoblast subtype, and show that depletion of its marker gene makes planarians more susceptible to sub-lethal radiation. Furthermore, we identified spatial gene expression modules essential for tissue development. Functional analysis of hub genes in spatial modules, such as plk1, shows their important roles in regeneration. Our three-dimensional transcriptomic atlas provides a powerful tool for deciphering regeneration and identifying homeostasis-related genes, and provides a publicly available online spatiotemporal analysis resource for planarian regeneration research.
涡虫的全身再生是一种自然奇观，但它是如何发生的仍然难以捉摸。它需要剩余组织中的每个细胞都具有空间意识来协调反应，以再生新的细胞和缺失的身体部位。虽然之前的研究已经确定了新的对再生至关重要的基因，但需要一种更有效的筛选方法，能够在空间背景下识别与再生相关的基因。在这里，我们呈现了涡虫再生的全面的三维时空转录组图谱。我们描述了一种多能性的成体干细胞亚型，并表明其标记基因的耗竭会使涡虫更容易受到亚致死剂量的辐射。此外，我们还确定了对组织发育至关重要的空间表达模块。对空间模块中枢纽基因的功能分析，如 plk1，表明它们在再生中的重要作用。我们的三维转录组图谱为解析再生和识别与体内平衡相关的基因提供了一个强大的工具，并为涡虫再生研究提供了一个公共的在线时空分析资源。
