ECB-ART-46993
BMC Biol
2019 Feb 22;171:16. doi: 10.1186/s12915-019-0633-9.
Show Gene links
Show Anatomy links
Analysis of sea star larval regeneration reveals conserved processes of whole-body regeneration across the metazoa.
???displayArticle.abstract???
BACKGROUND: Metazoan lineages exhibit a wide range of regenerative capabilities that vary among developmental stage and tissue type. The most robust regenerative abilities are apparent in the phyla Cnidaria, Platyhelminthes, and Echinodermata, whose members are capable of whole-body regeneration (WBR). This phenomenon has been well characterized in planarian and hydra models, but the molecular mechanisms of WBR are less established within echinoderms, or any other deuterostome system. Thus, it is not clear to what degree aspects of this regenerative ability are shared among metazoa. RESULTS: We characterize regeneration in the larval stage of the Bat Star (Patiria miniata). Following bisection along the anterior-posterior axis, larvae progress through phases of wound healing and re-proportioning of larval tissues. The overall number of proliferating cells is reduced following bisection, and we find evidence for a re-deployment of genes with known roles in embryonic axial patterning. Following axial respecification, we observe a significant localization of proliferating cells to the wound region. Analyses of transcriptome data highlight the molecular signatures of functions that are common to regeneration, including specific signaling pathways and cell cycle controls. Notably, we find evidence for temporal similarities among orthologous genes involved in regeneration from published Platyhelminth and Cnidarian regeneration datasets. CONCLUSIONS: These analyses show that sea star larval regeneration includes phases of wound response, axis respecification, and wound-proximal proliferation. Commonalities of the overall process of regeneration, as well as gene usage between this deuterostome and other species with divergent evolutionary origins reveal a deep similarity of whole-body regeneration among the metazoa.
???displayArticle.pubmedLink??? 30795750
???displayArticle.pmcLink??? PMC6385403
???displayArticle.link??? BMC Biol
Species referenced: Echinodermata
Genes referenced: dach1 egr3 elk1 fzd5 fzd9 gli3 klf2 LOC100887844 LOC100893907 LOC115919910 LOC583082 mcm2 pole runx2
???attribute.lit??? ???displayArticles.show???
![]() |
Fig. 1. Models of whole-body regeneration. a Phylogeny depicting regeneration capacity of various taxa, after [2, 89]. Species from the three taxa marked with a star were considered in this study. b Schematic of a sea star bipinnaria larva indicating the bisection plane (dashed line) and relevant anatomical features including the ciliary band epithelium (green), coelomic pouch epithelium (purple), and enteric organs (blue) |
![]() |
Fig. 2. Sea star bipinnaria regeneration involves wound healing, re-proportioning, and respecification.(a) DIC images showing larval recovery following bisection (top row) and magnifications of the wound site at each stage (bottom row). Important anatomical features are highlighted in the magnified images including the wound site (arrowheads), opening to the gut lumen (dotted lines), and new ciliary bands (asterisks). Scale bar = 100âμm; applicable to all images in panel. (b) Two serial sections from the same individual showing wound closure (arrowheads) and many free cells within the blastocoelar space (asterisks). (c) Ratios of length from the posterior pole to the top of the post-oral ciliary band to length from the posterior pole to the anterior pole (i.e., total length of the specimen) are plotted along with the difference of the means (i.e., Î length ratio) and 95% confidence interval. Those timepoints with a ratio found to be significantly different than uncut larvae are indicated by the red line and asterisk (Mann-Whitney U test, p value <â0.001). nâ=ânumber of individuals measured at each timepoint |
![]() |
Fig. 3. Cell proliferation decreases and localizes to wound-proximal cells. a EdU staining of S-phase cells in intact and regenerating sea star larvae (1â7âdays post-bisection [dpb]). EdU-positive cells are shown in green. Nuclei were stained with DAPI and shown in gray. Cell proliferation in uncut larvae is throughout the ciliary band epithelium (cb), mouth (mo), stomach (s), and coelomic pouches (cp). Regenerating anterior fragments (top row) and posterior fragments (bottom row) demonstrate similar initial distributions of proliferation, although the number of EdU+ cells decreased by 3 dpb. Beginning at 6 dpb, EdU+ cells are concentrated near the wound site in both anterior and posterior regenerating fragments in a putative regeneration blastema (bl). b Quantitation of the EdU+ cells shows a steady decline in the number of proliferating cells in both anterior and posterior regenerating fragments. The difference of the means (i.e., Î EdU+ Cells) is plotted and significance differences are indicated (Mann-Whitney, pâ<â0.05, red asterisk). nâ=âtotal number of bisected animals counted. c The fraction of EdU+ cells in each of the wound-proximal, middle, and wound-distal thirds of each regenerating larval fragment from panel B is shown. The number of individuals counted is the same as in (b). The difference of the means (i.e., Î % EdU+ cells) is plotted and significance differences are indicated (Mann-Whitney, pâ<â0.05, red asterisk). d The experimental regimen of the BrdU/EdU pulse-chase experiments is shown. Regenerating larvae (left) or uncut larvae (right) were labeled with BrdU (magenta) for 6âh after which the BrdU was washed out. Larvae are subsequently labeled with a 6âh EdU pulse (green) at the onset of wound-proximal proliferation or after a similar duration for uncut larvae |
![]() |
Fig. 4. Apoptotic cell death persists and increases in later phases. a TUNEL+ cells (green) in control animals are normally distributed throughout larval tissues and is concentrated within the ciliary band epithelium. Nuclei (gray) stained with DAPI. Regenerating anterior (b) and posterior (c) fragments display similar patterns and numbers of TUNEL+ cells from 3 h post-bisection (hpb) until 6âdays post-bisection (dpb) when there is an increase. d Quantitation of TUNEL+ cells in regenerating anterior and posterior fragments shows that there is no significant difference in the number of TUNEL+ cells until 6 dpb when a significant increase in apoptotic cells are detected. The difference of the means (i.e., Î TUNEL+ cells) is plotted and significance differences are indicated (Mann-Whitney, pâ<â3âÃâ10â4, red asterisk). nâ=âthe number of individuals sampled |
![]() |
Fig. 5. Cluster analysis indicates genes involved in regenerative functions. a The heatmap depicts log fold change values for genes (rows) in anterior (ANT) and posterior (POST) regenerating fragments compared with sibling uncut control (CONT) larvae over the sampled regeneration time points (columns; 3âh post-bisection [hpb], 3âdays post-bisection [dpb], and 6 dpb). Green indicates a positive fold change (upregulated with respect to uncut controls), whereas purple indicates a negative fold change (downregulated with respect to control). b Gene ontology (GO) term enrichments for each of the five clusters. The enrichment of each GO term is indicated by a circle where the area corresponds to the fraction of genes annotated with that term are present in the cluster, and the color of the circle corresponds to the corrected hypergeometric p value of term enrichment. Terms marked with an asterisk [*] are from the annotation set generated by mouse gene ortholog prediction (Fig. 5, Additional file 1: Figure S3) |
![]() |
Fig. 6. Evolutionarily similar early regeneration response. (a) These plots show sea star gene log fold change values for genes differentially expressed early in both anterior and posterior regenerating fragments compared with non-bisected sibling control larvae. Genes upregulated in both fragments (top row) correspond to cluster I, and genes downregulated in both fragments (bottom row) correspond to cluster II. All genes assigned to each cluster are plotted in gray. Several genes, either referenced in the text or representative of functions considered, are indicated with colored lines. Next to the key for each gene is an indication (+) of whether an ortholog for that gene was found in an analogous cluster in either the planaria (S.m.) or hydra (H.m.) datasets. Indicators in brackets (e.g., â[+]â) are those was no overlapping ortholog identified by our analyses, but genes with the same name were implicated by published datasets. Genes plotted with dashed lines are shown by in situ (right). Several additional genes are shown in a supplemental figure (Additional file 1: Figure S9). The expression patterns of Elk (b), Egr (c), and Klf2/4 (d) are shown. (bâ²âdâ²) are magnifications of the wound site shown in the boxed regions in panels (bâd). Expression patterns in uncut larva are also shown (bâ³âdâ³) |
![]() |
Fig. 7. Fragment-specific recovery of appropriate anterior-posterior gene expression. a The expression of genes asymmetrically expressed in either anterior (ANT; solid lines, cluster III) or posterior (POST; dashed lines, cluster IV) sea star larval territories was examined at 3âh post-bisection (hpb), 3âdays post-bisection (dpb), and 6 dpb. The log fold change values for each gene in regenerating anterior or posterior fragments compared with non-bisected sibling control larvae is reported for each fragment (ANT/CONT and POST/CONT, respectively) over the regenerating time course sampled. Black lines show the detected expression of Frizz5/8 and Frizz9/10. b Model for recover of genes asymmetrically expressed along the anterior-posterior axis, with Frizz9/10 (blue) and Frizz5/8 (maroon) provided as examples. c Whole-mount fluorescent in situ hybridization illustrating the re-activation of Frizz9/10 (magenta) in the posterior aspect of regenerating anterior fragments beginning at 5 dpb and preceding the concentration of proliferating EdU+ cells (green) near the wound site. d Re-activation of Frizz5/8 (magenta) in the anterior aspect of regenerating posterior fragments beginning at 2 dpb and preceding the concentration of proliferating EdU+ cells near the wound site |
![]() |
Fig. 8. Shared proliferation-associated genes. a These data show sea star log fold change values for genes differentially expressed at later stages in regenerating fragments compared with non-bisected sibling control larvae (i.e., sea star cluster V). All genes assigned to cluster V are plotted in gray. Several genes, either referenced in the text or representative of functions considered, are indicated with colored lines. Next to the key for each gene is an indication (i.e., â+â) of whether an ortholog for that gene was found in an analogous cluster in either the planaria (S.m.) or hydra (H.m.) datasets. Indicators in brackets (e.g., â[+]â) are those where no overlapping ortholog was identified by our analyses, but genes with the same name were implicated by published datasets. Genes plotted with dashed lines are shown by fluorescent in situ hybridization (below). Mcm2 (b), Runt1 (c), GliA (d), and Dach1 (e) are all expressed in the anterior aspects of regenerating fragments at 6 dpb. In many cases, the expression of these genes is coincident with an EdU+ cell, suggesting that these genes are expressed, at least in part, in proliferating cells |
![]() |
Fig. 9. Summary of similarities between WBR models. The reported features of regeneration at early, middle, and late stages of regeneration, with respect to the datasets considered in this study, are indicated. Features detected in the sea star model in our study that are shared with the other two models are highlighted in red. Some aspects are considered in common based on shared gene expression (e.g., MAPK signaling) whereas others are based on cytological observations (e.g., blastema proliferation) |
References [+] :
Aihara,
In vivo epithelial wound repair requires mobilization of endogenous intracellular and extracellular calcium.
2013, Pubmed
Aihara, In vivo epithelial wound repair requires mobilization of endogenous intracellular and extracellular calcium. 2013, Pubmed
Almuedo-Castillo, JNK controls the onset of mitosis in planarian stem cells and triggers apoptotic cell death required for regeneration and remodeling. 2014, Pubmed
Anders, HTSeq--a Python framework to work with high-throughput sequencing data. 2015, Pubmed
Bahrami, Gene regulation in the immediate-early response process. 2016, Pubmed
Bannister, Coelomic expression of a novel bone morphogenetic protein in regenerating arms of the brittle star Amphiura filiformis. 2008, Pubmed , Echinobase
Bannister, Afuni, a novel transforming growth factor-beta gene is involved in arm regeneration by the brittle star Amphiura filiformis. 2005, Pubmed , Echinobase
Bely, Evolution of animal regeneration: re-emergence of a field. 2010, Pubmed
Ben Khadra, Homeobox genes expressed during echinoderm arm regeneration. 2014, Pubmed , Echinobase
Boehm, FoxO is a critical regulator of stem cell maintenance in immortal Hydra. 2012, Pubmed
Bolger, Trimmomatic: a flexible trimmer for Illumina sequence data. 2014, Pubmed
Bridge, FoxO and stress responses in the cnidarian Hydra vulgaris. 2010, Pubmed
Burke, A genomic view of the sea urchin nervous system. 2006, Pubmed , Echinobase
Burns, Transcriptome pyrosequencing of the Antarctic brittle star Ophionotus victoriae. 2013, Pubmed , Echinobase
Cheatle Jarvela, A gene regulatory network for apical organ neurogenesis and its spatial control in sea star embryos. 2016, Pubmed , Echinobase
Cheatle Jarvela, A method for microinjection of Patiria miniata zygotes. 2014, Pubmed , Echinobase
Cheng, Calcium signaling in membrane repair. 2015, Pubmed
Chera, Apoptotic cells provide an unexpected source of Wnt3 signaling to drive hydra head regeneration. 2009, Pubmed
Chera, Silencing of the hydra serine protease inhibitor Kazal1 gene mimics the human SPINK1 pancreatic phenotype. 2006, Pubmed
Cursons, Regulation of ERK-MAPK signaling in human epidermis. 2015, Pubmed
Czarkwiani, Expression of skeletogenic genes during arm regeneration in the brittle star Amphiura filiformis. 2013, Pubmed , Echinobase
David, Interstitial stem cells in Hydra: multipotency and decision-making. 2012, Pubmed
DuBuc, Initiating a regenerative response; cellular and molecular features of wound healing in the cnidarian Nematostella vectensis. 2014, Pubmed
Elliott, The history and enduring contributions of planarians to the study of animal regeneration. 2013, Pubmed
Galliot, Hydra, a fruitful model system for 270 years. 2012, Pubmed
Galliot, Cnidarians as a model system for understanding evolution and regeneration. 2002, Pubmed
Gehrke, Neoblasts and the evolution of whole-body regeneration. 2016, Pubmed
Geng, iTRAQ-Based Quantitative Proteomic Analysis of the Initiation of Head Regeneration in Planarians. 2015, Pubmed
Gold, Stem cell dynamics in Cnidaria: are there unifying principles? 2013, Pubmed
Guder, An ancient Wnt-Dickkopf antagonism in Hydra. 2006, Pubmed
Hamada, Evolution of the chordate regeneration blastema: Differential gene expression and conserved role of notch signaling during siphon regeneration in the ascidian Ciona. 2015, Pubmed
Hellman, The zebrafish foxj1a transcription factor regulates cilia function in response to injury and epithelial stretch. 2010, Pubmed
Hernroth, Possibility of mixed progenitor cells in sea star arm regeneration. 2010, Pubmed , Echinobase
Hinman, Expression and function of a starfish Otx ortholog, AmOtx: a conserved role for Otx proteins in endoderm development that predates divergence of the eleutherozoa. 2003, Pubmed , Echinobase
Jeffery, Closing the wounds: one hundred and twenty five years of regenerative biology in the ascidian Ciona intestinalis. 2015, Pubmed
Joiner, Primary Cilia on Horizontal Basal Cells Regulate Regeneration of the Olfactory Epithelium. 2015, Pubmed
Kao, The planarian regeneration transcriptome reveals a shared but temporally shifted regulatory program between opposing head and tail scenarios. 2013, Pubmed
Kawamura, Role of Vasa, Piwi, and Myc-expressing coelomic cells in gonad regeneration of the colonial tunicate, Botryllus primigenus. 2011, Pubmed
Kim, TopHat2: accurate alignment of transcriptomes in the presence of insertions, deletions and gene fusions. 2013, Pubmed
Kumar, Nerve dependence in tissue, organ, and appendage regeneration. 2012, Pubmed
Laird, Telomerase maintained in self-renewing tissues during serial regeneration of the urochordate Botryllus schlosseri. 2004, Pubmed
Leiper, The roles of calcium signaling and ERK1/2 phosphorylation in a Pax6+/- mouse model of epithelial wound-healing delay. 2006, Pubmed
Li, Regeneration across metazoan phylogeny: lessons from model organisms. 2015, Pubmed
Liu, Reactivating head regrowth in a regeneration-deficient planarian species. 2013, Pubmed
Lund, Detecting differential expression in RNA-sequence data using quasi-likelihood with shrunken dispersion estimates. 2012, Pubmed
Luttrell, Head regeneration in hemichordates is not a strict recapitulation of development. 2016, Pubmed
Mashanov, Expression of Wnt9, TCTP, and Bmp1/Tll in sea cucumber visceral regeneration. 2012, Pubmed , Echinobase
Mashanov, Visceral regeneration in a sea cucumber involves extensive expression of survivin and mortalin homologs in the mesothelium. 2010, Pubmed , Echinobase
Mashanov, Expression of pluripotency factors in echinoderm regeneration. 2015, Pubmed , Echinobase
Mashanov, Radial glial cells play a key role in echinoderm neural regeneration. 2013, Pubmed , Echinobase
Mashanov, Transcriptomic changes during regeneration of the central nervous system in an echinoderm. 2014, Pubmed , Echinobase
McCauley, Dose-dependent nuclear β-catenin response segregates endomesoderm along the sea star primary axis. 2015, Pubmed , Echinobase
McCauley, Expression of wnt and frizzled genes during early sea star development. 2013, Pubmed , Echinobase
Ortiz-Pineda, Gene expression profiling of intestinal regeneration in the sea cucumber. 2009, Pubmed , Echinobase
Oulhen, Regeneration in bipinnaria larvae of the bat star Patiria miniata induces rapid and broad new gene expression. 2016, Pubmed , Echinobase
Oviedo, Planarian PTEN homologs regulate stem cells and regeneration through TOR signaling. 2008, Pubmed
Pearson, Regeneration, stem cells, and the evolution of tumor suppression. 2008, Pubmed
Pellettieri, Cell death and tissue remodeling in planarian regeneration. 2010, Pubmed
Petersen, A Comprehensive Transcriptomic and Proteomic Analysis of Hydra Head Regeneration. 2015, Pubmed
Pomerantz, Tumor suppressors: enhancers or suppressors of regeneration? 2013, Pubmed
Reddien, Fundamentals of planarian regeneration. 2004, Pubmed
Reinardy, Tissue regeneration and biomineralization in sea urchins: role of Notch signaling and presence of stem cell markers. 2015, Pubmed , Echinobase
Rizzo, An Elk transcription factor is required for Runx-dependent survival signaling in the sea urchin embryo. 2016, Pubmed , Echinobase
Robinson, edgeR: a Bioconductor package for differential expression analysis of digital gene expression data. 2010, Pubmed
Rychel, Anterior regeneration in the hemichordate Ptychodera flava. 2008, Pubmed
Sánchez Alvarado, Bridging the regeneration gap: genetic insights from diverse animal models. 2006, Pubmed
Schaffer, A transcriptional time-course analysis of oral vs. aboral whole-body regeneration in the Sea anemone Nematostella vectensis. 2016, Pubmed
Sikes, Restoration of anterior regeneration in a planarian with limited regenerative ability. 2013, Pubmed
Somorjai, Vertebrate-like regeneration in the invertebrate chordate amphioxus. 2012, Pubmed
Sun, RNA-Seq reveals dynamic changes of gene expression in key stages of intestine regeneration in the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus. [corrected]. 2013, Pubmed , Echinobase
Tasaki, Role of c-Jun N-terminal kinase activation in blastema formation during planarian regeneration. 2011, Pubmed
Tasaki, ERK signaling controls blastema cell differentiation during planarian regeneration. 2011, Pubmed
Tejada-Romero, JNK signalling is necessary for a Wnt- and stem cell-dependent regeneration programme. 2015, Pubmed
Thorndyke, Molecular approach to echinoderm regeneration. 2001, Pubmed , Echinobase
Trapnell, Differential gene and transcript expression analysis of RNA-seq experiments with TopHat and Cufflinks. 2012, Pubmed
Umesono, The molecular logic for planarian regeneration along the anterior-posterior axis. 2013, Pubmed
Vickery, Regeneration in echinoderm larvae. 2001, Pubmed , Echinobase
Vickery, Utilization of a novel deuterostome model for the study of regeneration genetics: molecular cloning of genes that are differentially expressed during early stages of larval sea star regeneration. 2001, Pubmed , Echinobase
Wagner, Clonogenic neoblasts are pluripotent adult stem cells that underlie planarian regeneration. 2011, Pubmed
Wang, NanoStringDiff: a novel statistical method for differential expression analysis based on NanoString nCounter data. 2016, Pubmed
Wenemoser, A molecular wound response program associated with regeneration initiation in planarians. 2012, Pubmed
Wenger, Injury-induced immune responses in Hydra. 2014, Pubmed
Yankura, Gene regulatory network for neurogenesis in a sea star embryo connects broad neural specification and localized patterning. 2013, Pubmed , Echinobase
Yankura, Uncoupling of complex regulatory patterning during evolution of larval development in echinoderms. 2010, Pubmed , Echinobase
Yoo, Early redox, Src family kinase, and calcium signaling integrate wound responses and tissue regeneration in zebrafish. 2012, Pubmed
Zhu, (Neo)blast from the past: new insights into planarian stem cell lineages. 2016, Pubmed