Planarian
The article's lead section may need to be rewritten. The reason given is: it does not summarise the body. (December 2023) |
Planarian | |
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dugesiid .
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Platyhelminthes |
Subphylum: | Rhabditophora |
Order: | Tricladida Lang, 1884 |
Subdivisions[1] | |
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Planarians (triclads) are free-living flatworms of the class Turbellaria,[2][3] order Tricladida,[4] which includes hundreds of species, found in freshwater, marine, and terrestrial habitats.[5] Planarians are characterized by a three-branched intestine, including a single anterior and two posterior branches.[5] Their body is populated by adult stem cells called neoblasts, which planarians use for regenerating missing body parts.[6] Many species are able to regenerate any missing organ, which has made planarians a popular model in research of regeneration and stem cell biology.[7] The genome sequences of several species are available, as are tools for molecular biology analysis.[7][8]
The order Tricladida is split into three suborders, according to their phylogenetic relationships:
Planarians move by beating
Triclads play an important role in watercourse ecosystems and are often very important as bio-indicators.[11]
Phylogeny and taxonomy
Phylogeny
Phylogenetic supertree after Sluys et al., 2009:[1]
Tricladida | |
Taxonomy
Linnaean ranks after Sluys et al., 2009:[1]
- Order Tricladida
- Suborder Maricola
- Superfamily Cercyroidea
- Family Centrovarioplanidae
- Family Cercyridae
- Family Meixnerididae
- Family
- Superfamily Bdellouroidea
- Family Uteriporidae
- Family Bdellouridae
- Superfamily Procerodoidea
- Family Procerodidae
- Family
- Superfamily
- Suborder Cavernicola[12]
- Family Dimarcusidae
- Suborder Continenticola
- Superfamily Planarioidea
- Family Planariidae
- Family Dendrocoelidae
- Family Kenkiidae
- Superfamily Geoplanoidea
- Family Dugesiidae
- Family Geoplanidae
- Superfamily Planarioidea
- Suborder Maricola
Anatomy and physiology
Planarians are
The excretory system is made of many tubes with many flame cells and excretory pores on them. Also, flame cells remove unwanted liquids from the body by passing them through ducts which lead to excretory pores, where waste is released on the dorsal surface of the planarian.
The triclads have an anterior end or head where sense organs, such as eyes and chemoreceptors, are usually found. Some species have auricles that protrude from the margins of the head. The auricles can contain chemical and mechanical sensory receptors.[14]
The number of eyes in the triclads is variable depending on the species. While many species have two eyes (e.g. Dugesia or Microplana), others have many more distributed along the body (e.g. most Geoplaninae). Sometimes, those species with two eyes may present smaller accessory or supernumerary eyes. The subterranean triclads are often eyeless or blind.[14]
The body of the triclads is covered by a ciliated epidermis that contains rhabdites. Between the epidermis and the gastrodermis there is a parenchymatous tissue or mesenchyme.[14]
Nervous system
The planarian nervous systems consists of a bilobed shaped cerebral
The planarian has a soft, flat, wedge-shaped body that may be black, brown, blue, gray, or white. The blunt, triangular head has two ocelli (eyespots), pigmented areas that are sensitive to light. There are two auricles (earlike projections) at the base of the head, which are sensitive to touch and the presence of certain chemicals. The mouth is located in the middle of the underside of the body, which is covered with hairlike projections (cilia). There are no circulatory or respiratory systems; oxygen enters and carbon dioxide leaves the planarian's body by diffusing through the body wall.
Reproduction
This article needs additional citations for verification. (November 2016) |
Triclads reproduce sexually and asexually, and different species may be able to reproduce by one or both modes.
Thus, one of their gametes will combine with the gamete of another planarian. Each planarian transports its secretion to the other planarian, giving and receiving sperm. Eggs develop inside the body and are shed in capsules. Weeks later, the eggs hatch and grow into adults. In asexual reproduction, the planarian fissions and each fragment regenerates its missing tissues, generating complete anatomy and restoring functions.[17] Asexual reproduction, similar to regeneration following injury, requires neoblasts, adult stem cells, which proliferate and produce differentiated cells.[17] Some researchers claim that the products derived from bisecting a planarian are similar to the products of planarian asexual reproduction; however, debates about the nature of asexual reproduction in planarians and its effect on the population are ongoing.[18] Some species of planarian are exclusively asexual, whereas some can reproduce both sexually and asexually.[19] In most of the cases the sexual reproduction involve two individuals; auto fecundation has been rarely reported (e.g. in Cura foremanii).[14]
Neoblasts
Neoblasts are abundant
As a model system in biological and biomedical research
The
Planarians have a number of cell types, tissues and simple organs that are
Planarians are also an emerging model organism for
Regeneration
Planarian regeneration combines new tissue production with reorganization to the existing anatomy, morphallaxis.[17] The rate of tissue regrowth varies between species, but in frequently used lab species, functional regenerated tissues are available already 7–10 days following tissue amputation.[17] Regeneration starts following an injury that require the growth of a new tissue.[25] Neoblasts localized near the injury site proliferate to generate a structure of differentiating cells called blastema. Neoblasts are required for new cell production, and they therefore provide the cellular basis for planarian regeneration.[26] Cell signaling mechanisms provide positional information that regulates the cell types and tissues that are produced from the neoblasts in regeneration.[27] Many signaling molecules that provide positional information to neoblasts, in regeneration and homeostasis, are expressed in muscle cells.[28] Following injury, muscle cells throughout the body can alter the expression of genes that encode molecules that provide positional information.[28] Therefore, the activities of neoblasts and muscle cells following injuries are essential for successful regeneration.[29]
Historically, planarians have been considered "immortal under the edge of a knife."[30] Very small pieces of the planarian, estimated to be as little as 1/279th of the organism it is cut from, can regenerate back into a complete organism over the course of a few weeks.[31] New tissues can grow due to pluripotent stem cells that have the ability to create all the various cell types.[32] These adult stem cells are called neoblasts, and comprise 20% or more of the cells in the adult animal.[33] They are the only proliferating cells in the worm, and they differentiate into progeny that replace older cells. In addition, existing tissue is remodeled to restore symmetry and proportion of the new planaria that forms from a piece of a cut up organism.[33][17]
The organism itself does not have to be completely cut into separate pieces for the regeneration phenomenon to be witnessed. In fact, if the head of a planarian is cut in half down its center, and each side retained on the organism, it is possible for the planarian to regenerate two heads and continue to live.[34] Researchers, including those from Tufts University in the U.S., sought to determine how microgravity and micro-geomagnetic fields would affect the growth and regeneration of planarian flatworms, Dugesia japonica. They discovered that one of the amputated fragments sent to space regenerated into a double-headed worm. The majority of such amputated worms (95%) did not do so, however. An amputated worm regenerated into a double-head creature after spending five weeks aboard the International Space Station (ISS) – though regeneration of amputated worms as double-headed heteromorphosis is not a rare phenomenon unique to a microgravity environment.[35] In contrast, two-headed planaria regenerates can be induced by exposing amputated fragments to electrical fields. Such exposure with opposite polarity can induce a planarian with 2 tails. Two-headed planaria regenerates can be induced by treating amputated fragments with pharmacological agents that alter levels of calcium, cyclic AMP, and protein kinase C activity in cells,[36] as well as by genetic expression blocks (interference RNA) to the canonical Wnt/β-Catenin signalling pathway.[27]
Biochemical memory experiments
In 1955, Robert Thompson and James V. McConnell conditioned planarian flatworms by pairing a bright light with an electric shock. After repeating this several times they took away the electric shock, and only exposed them to the bright light. The flatworms would react to the bright light as if they had been shocked. Thompson and McConnell found that if they cut the worm in two, and allowed both worms to regenerate each half would develop the light-shock reaction. In 1963, McConnell repeated the experiment, but instead of cutting the trained flatworms in two he ground them into small pieces and fed them to other flatworms. He reported that the flatworms learned to associate the bright light with a shock much faster than flatworms who had not been fed trained worms.
This experiment intended to test whether memory could be transferred chemically. The experiment was repeated with mice, fish, and rats, but it always failed to produce the same results. The perceived explanation was that rather than memory being transferred to the other animals, it was the hormones in the ingested ground animals that changed the behavior.
In 2012, Tal Shomrat and Michael Levin have shown that planarians exhibit evidence of long-term memory retrieval after regenerating a new head.[40]
Planarian species used for research and education
Several planarian species are commonly used for biological research. Popular experimental species are Schmidtea mediterranea, Schmidtea polychroa, and Dugesia japonica,[5] which in addition to excellent regenerative abilities, are easy to culture in the lab. In recent decades, S. mediterranea has emerged as the species of choice for modern molecular biology research, due to its diploid chromosomes and the availability of both asexual and sexual strains.[7]
The most frequently used planarian in high school and first-year college laboratories is the brownish Girardia tigrina. Other common species used are the blackish Planaria maculata and Girardia dorotocephala.
See also
- Worm Runner's Digest – Satirical (and serious) science journal
References
- ^ S2CID 85174457.
- ^ "Planarian (flatworm) – Britannica Online Encyclopedia". Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 2010-05-01.
- ISBN 978-0-8053-7146-8.
- ^ "Tricladida". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved July 23, 2007.
- ^ PMID 29916154, retrieved 2023-12-02pp 3., "Planarians (the popular name for the group as a whole), or triclad flatworms (the more scientific designation of the same group), are acoelomate bilaterians".
- S2CID 264347538.
- ^ S2CID 28379017.
- PMID 30496475.
- ^ Hallez P. (1892). Classification des Ticlades, Bulletin de la Société Zoologique de France.
- PMID 20409812.
- S2CID 54499235.
- S2CID 84915439.
- ISSN 0214-6282.
- ^ a b c d Kenk, R., 1972. Freshwater planarians (Turbellarians) of North America.
- PMID 11940100.
- ^
Aoki R, Wake H, Sasaki H, Agata K (March 2009). "Recording and spectrum analysis of the planarian electroencephalogram". Neuroscience. 159 (2): 908–914. S2CID 207244874.
- ^ PMID 15473858.
- PMID 27565761.
- S2CID 28379017.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-4939-7802-1, retrieved 2023-12-05
- PMID 21566185.
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- ^ PMID 18063757.
- ^ PMID 23954785.
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- ^ Dalyell JG (1814). Observations on some interesting phenomena in animal physiology, exhibited by several species of planariae. Edinburgh.
- PMID 18508666.
- PMID 19247944.
- ^ PMID 21353778.
- ^ "Do it again. Round up of regenerating animals". New Scientist. New Scientist. Retrieved 2012-10-21.
- PMID 28616247.
- PMID 24586156.
- University of Durham. Archived from the originalon 2012-10-15. Retrieved 2007-02-08.
- .
- ^ For a general review, see also Chapouthier G (1973). "Chapter 1: Behavioral studies of the molecular basis of memory". In Deutsch JA (ed.). The Physiological Basis of Memory. New York and London: Academic Press. pp. l–25.
- PMID 23821717.
External links
- More information on freshwater planarians and their biology
- More information on the genetic screen to identify regeneration genes
- YouTube videos: Planaria eating worm segment, Planarian
- Schmidtea mediterranea, facts, anatomy, image at GeoChemBio.com
- Alejandro Sanchez-Alvarado's Seminar: Regeneration in Planarians
- Link to an article discussing some work on planarian immortality
- A user-friendly visualization tool and database of planarian regeneration experiments
- Aboobaker, Aziz (27 February 2008). "Immortal Worms". Test Tube. Brady Haran for the University of Nottingham.
- Tricladida on the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL)
- Land planarians on the UF / IFAS Featured Creatures Web site