WIKIMEDIA, FRANK FOXLike their mythical namesakes, hydra are incredibly difficult to kill. Whether they’re sliced in half or shredded into pieces, the tiny freshwater animals usually manage to regenerate. Now, a February 7 study in Cell Reports pinpoints the mechanical action behind the biological phenomenon, and suggests that hydra rely on inherited actin fiber patterns that direct how the cytoskeleton should rebuild itself after trauma.
The findings could have implications for regenerative medicine. “Hydra have a relatively simple body plan compared to most other animals, but the basic features of having aligned cytoskeletal fibers and mechanical interactions between cells are universal,” said coauthor Kinneret Keren, a biophysicist at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. “This might help us understand regeneration processes in human tissues, which are essential for developing regenerative medicine and tissue engineering.”
Prior work on hydra had demonstrated that chemical signaling help direct hydra regeneration. “It was generally assumed that the distribution of various morphogens provides all the information needed to direct a small piece of hydra’s tissue how to regenerate,” Keren said. But rather than upending the current thinking on hydra regeneration, Keren noted that her ...
