Katherine Williams, Johanna Bischof, Frederick Lee, Kelsie Miller, Jennifer LaPalme, Benjamin Wolfe, Michael Levin
Some animals, such as planaria, can regenerate complex anatomical structures, in a process regulated by genetic and biophysical factors, but additional external inputs into regeneration remain to be uncovered. Microbial communities inhabiting metazoan organisms are important for metabolic, immune, and disease processes, but their instructive influence over host structures remains largely unexplored. Here, we show that Aquitalea sp. FJL05, an endogenous commensal bacterium of Dugesia japonica planarians, and one of the small molecules it produces, indole, can influence axial and head patterning during regeneration, leading to regeneration of permanently two-headed animals...
May 18, 2020: Mechanisms of Development