A Molecular Wound Response Program Associated With Regeneration Initiation in Planarians

The document from 2012 presents a study on the molecular mechanisms of regeneration initiation in planarians, revealing a set of genes activated by wounding. Two waves of gene expression were identified: immediate early genes and conserved patterning factors. Wound-induced genes were also found to be activated in neoblasts, including the essential Runx transcription factor-encoding runt-1, which is necessary for cell type specification during regeneration. The study showed that the serum response factor (SRF) and sos-1 are required for the expression of these genes in neoblasts. The findings suggest that a common gene expression program is activated by wounding, which is crucial for regeneration initiation, and that the planarian model can provide insights into the genetic basis of wound responses and regeneration in other organisms. The study involved RNA interference (RNAi), in situ hybridizations, and microarray analyses, but the number of planarians used in each experiment is not specified in the summary.