Researchers at Harvard University have developed a method to make transgenic acoel worms. This development will facilitate new insights into how the regeneration process works as Hofstenia miamia is known for its whole-body regeneration.
Study leader Mansi Srivastava and Lorenzo Ricci, co-author of the study published in Developmental Cell today, injected modified DNA into embryos that have just been fertilized. When the introduced gene becomes a protein it emits a fluorescent glow causing them to glow in the dark. These fluorescent proteins either glow green or red and can reveal glowing muscle cells or glowing skin cells, for example. This process allows researchers the ability to visualize with much better detail what the cells look like, where they are in the animal, and how they interact with each other. As well, researchers can add or take away specific information to the genome of the worm.
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The precision of transgenesis allows researchers to study the specific mechanism of any process in an organism. With H. miamia, the researchers can now do very precise manipulations such as switching of certain genes. Toggling different genes on or off may lead to the worm’s regeneration of a body part in the wrong place, but ultimately it can help scientists narrow down what genes are required for the worm to carry out its whole-body regeneration.
Now, with the ability to make transgenic worms, the researchers say they are most excited to study stem cells, including neoblasts, which are critical to regeneration.
“We don’t know how any one of these cells actually behaves in the animal during regeneration,” Srivastava said. “The true impact of this work actually lies in the fact that this new ability to make transgenic worms will allow us to study stem cells and regeneration in more depth than has been possible before. For example, we want to make the stem cells glow so we can directly watch them as they divide and make all other cell types in the animal, maybe even a whole new brain.”