M6A promotes planarian regeneration

Abstract

Regeneration is the regrowth of damaged tissues or organs, a vital process in response to damages from primitive organisms to higher mammals. Planarian possesses active whole-body regenerative capability owing to its vast reservoir of adult stem cells, neoblasts, providing an ideal model to delineate the underlying mechanisms for regeneration. RNA N6 -methyladenosine (m6 A) modification participates in many biological processes, including stem cell self-renewal and differentiation, in particular the regeneration of haematopoietic stem cells and axons. However, how m6 A controls regeneration at the whole-organism level remains largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate that the depletion of m6 A methyltransferase regulatory subunit wtap abolishes planarian regeneration, potentially through regulating genes related to cell-cell communication and cell cycle. Single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) analysis unveils that the wtap knockdown induces a unique type of neural progenitor-like cells (NP-like cells), characterized by specific expression of the cell-cell communication ligand grn. Intriguingly, the depletion of m6 A-modified transcripts grn, cdk9 or cdk7 partially rescues the defective regeneration of planarian caused by wtap knockdown. Overall, our study reveals an indispensable role of m6 A modification in regulating whole-organism regeneration.