Flatworms treated with a drug inhibiting electrical synapses either repaired themselves back into their normal form (72 percent), into a two-headed form (25 percent), or did not regenerate (3 percent).
FALLON DURANT, ALLEN DISCOVERY CENTER AT TUFTS UNIVERSITY
Tufts University scientists demonstrated that they can permanently alter the resulting body shape of a regenerating flatworm by manipulating its synapses, according to a study published today (May 24) in Biophysical Journal.
Flatworms (Dugesia japonica) have a remarkable capacity for repairing themselves; if they’re sliced in half, they can reconstruct their deficient half to make themselves whole again, producing a duplicate of their pre-injury form.
Here, scientists used a drug to temporarily inhibit communication between flatworms’ electrical synapses, which differ from chemical synapses by using channel proteins to span small gaps between neurons. This molecular block made one quarter of the worms regenerate into a two-headed form ...
