Abstract
BackgroundRegenerative capacity differs greatly between animals. In vertebrates regenerative abilities are highly limited and tissue or organ specific. However the closest related chordate to the vertebrate clade, Botrylloides leachi, can undergo whole body regeneration (WBR). Therefore, research on WBR in B. leachi has focused on pathways known to be important for regeneration in vertebrates. To obtain a comprehensive vision of this unique process we have carried out the first de novo transcriptome sequencing for multiple stages of WBR occurring in B. leachi. The identified changes in gene expression during B. leachi WBR offer novel insights into this remarkable ability to regenerate.ResultsThe transcriptome of B. leachi tissue undergoing WBR were analysed using differential gene expression, gene ontology and pathway analyses. We observed up-regulation in the expression of genes involved in wound healing and known developmental pathways including WNT, TGF-β and Notch, during the earliest stages of WBR. Later in WBR, the expression patterns in several pathways required for protein synthesis, biogenesis and the organisation of cellular components were up-regulated.ConclusionsWhile the genes expressed early on are characteristic of a necessary wound healing response to an otherwise lethal injury, the subsequent vast increase in protein synthesis conceivably sustains the reestablishment of the tissue complexity and body axis polarity within the regenerating zooid. We have, for the first time, provided a global overview of the genes and their corresponding pathways that are modulated during WBR in B. leachi.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-016-2435-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
A unique exception to this trend are colonial tunicates such as B. leachi that are capable of whole body regeneration (WBR); [1] where a fully functional adult organism is regenerated from a minuscule piece of vascular tissue (~200 cells), restoring both somatic and germ cell lines
During stages 2–3, vascular cells aggregate into regeneration niches, which become visible by stage 4 as a light opaque mass in the middle of the dense vascular tissue (Fig. 1a and d-f; Stage 4)
We found that 23801 (i.e. 40.1 %) of the B. leachi transcripts had a significant match to the C. intestinalis protein database
Summary
Regenerative capacity correlates inversely with tissue complexity, complex organisms such as chordates have a limited capability to regenerate following severe injury. A unique exception to this trend are colonial tunicates such as B. leachi that are capable of whole body regeneration (WBR); [1] where a fully functional adult organism is regenerated from a minuscule piece of vascular tissue (~200 cells), restoring both somatic and germ cell lines. Either loss of all adults or dissection of the ampullae and associated blood vessels from the zooids results in the regeneration of a new adult. This whole process occurs within 8–14 days and can be reproduced
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