1 / 18

Evolution of Regeneration

“The regenerative process is one of the fundamental attributes of living things...” Thomas Hunt Morgan (1901), from his book Regeneration . Evolution and Development. Evolution of Regeneration. What explains the distribution of regeneration among organisms? - Adaptive?

khanh
Download Presentation

Evolution of Regeneration

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. “The regenerative process is one of the fundamental attributes of living things...” Thomas Hunt Morgan (1901), from his book Regeneration.

  2. Evolution and Development Evolution of Regeneration What explains the distribution of regeneration among organisms? - Adaptive? - Ancestral to all metazoans and repeatedly lost, or independently derived?

  3. Regeneration is Phylogenetically Widespread Anuran Tail Planeria

  4. Regeneration: Adaptive? • Seemingly, the ability to regenerate should benefit individuals of a population (i.e. is adaptive). • Can you think of a way to test the idea that regeneration is adaptive?

  5. Hermit Crabs regenerate their anterior and posterior limbs. However, the frequency of regeneration is much higher for anterior legs (83% vs 21%). From Morgan 1898 and Needham 1961

  6. Regeneration: Ancestral? • Much of what is accomplished during regeneration is first accomplished during embryonic development (same mechanisms are deployed). • Can you think of a way to test the idea that regeneration is inherent?

  7. Observations Supporting the Idea that Regeneration is Ancestral • Phylogenetically widespread • Lost between closely related species • Aspects of regeneration are similar among organisms in a developmental sense • Some organisms that can not regenerate body parts, do so partially during development.

  8. Epimorphic Regeneration: The Blastema is Very Similar Among Unrelated Taxa

  9. Regulation and Evolution of Epimorphic Regeneration

  10. Why Not Regeneration?Why don’t we observe it more? • Loss of regeneration may reflect major evolutionary changes: • With respect to amniote vertebrates: • Water to land transition • Poikilothermy to homothermy • Loss of metamorphosis • Evolution of immune system

  11. However, there is variation among amphibians Unlike salamanders, Xenopus has limited regenerative potential • Can regenerate limbs as immature larvae • Loses ability to regenerate at metamorphosis • Adults regenerate a cartilagenous spike after limb amputation. • Is the generation of a spike an adaptation?

  12. 100% regenerate spike after radia-ulna amputation 80% regenerate spike after humerous amputation 0% regenerate spike after complete amputation

  13. Growth Rates Day 01 month4 months No legs amputated 0.55 9.54 10.2 1 leg amputated 0.54 9.0 9.54 2 legs amputated 0.53 7.5 8.8 * Weights are in grams

  14. The spike supports nuptial pad tissue development in males.

  15. 2 of 3 males with 1 regenerated radia-ulna spike were able to successfully amplex and mate with a female.

  16. The results suggest that spike regeneration maybe adaptive. • But why did Xenopus frogs presumably loose the ability to reform perfect limbs?

More Related