Research Article

You have full text access to this OnlineOpen article

The use of lectins as markers for differentiated secretory cells in planarians

  1. Ricardo M. Zayas1,2,*,
  2. Francesc Cebrià1,2,†,
  3. Tingxia Guo1,‡,
  4. Junjie Feng1,§,
  5. Phillip A. Newmark1,2,3

Article first published online: 23 SEP 2010

DOI: 10.1002/dvdy.22427

Issue

Developmental Dynamics

Developmental Dynamics

Volume 239, Issue 11, pages 2888–2897, November 2010

Additional Information

How to Cite

Zayas, R. M., Cebrià, F., Guo, T., Feng, J. and Newmark, P. A. (2010), The use of lectins as markers for differentiated secretory cells in planarians. Dev. Dyn., 239: 2888–2897. doi: 10.1002/dvdy.22427

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois

  2. 2

    Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois

  3. 3

    Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois

  1. †

    Departament de Genética, Universitat de Barcelona, Av. Diagonal 645, 08028 Barcelona, Spain

  2. ‡

    Diabetes Center, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA 94143

  3. §

    Center for Cancer Genomics, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Medical Center Blvd., Winston-Salem, NC 27157

*Department of Biology, San Diego State University, 5500 Campanile Dr., San Diego, CA 92182-4614

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 21 OCT 2010
  2. Article first published online: 23 SEP 2010
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 13 AUG 2010

Funded by

  • NIH. Grant Number: R01 HD-43403

SEARCH

SEARCH BY CITATION

ARTICLE TOOLS

View Full Article with Supporting Information (HTML) Get PDF (5779K)

Keywords:

  • Planarian;
  • Schmidtea mediterranea;
  • lectin;
  • regeneration;
  • Platyhelminthes;
  • flatworms

Abstract

Freshwater planarians have reemerged as excellent models to investigate mechanisms underlying regeneration. The introduction of molecular tools has facilitated the study of planarians, but cell- and tissue-specific markers are still needed to examine differentiation of most cell types. Here we report the utility of fluorescent lectin-conjugates to label tissues in the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea. We show that 16 lectin-conjugates stain planarian cells or tissues; 13 primarily label the secretory cells, their cytoplasmic projections, and terminal pores. Thus, we examined regeneration of the secretory system using lectin markers and functionally characterized two genes expressed in the secretory cells: marginal adhesive gland-1 (mag-1) and Smed-reticulocalbin1 (Smed-rcn1). RNAi knockdown of these genes caused a dramatic reduction of secretory cell lectin staining, suggesting a role for mag-1 and Smed-rcn1 in secretory cell differentiation. Our results provide new insights into planarian secretory system regeneration and add new markers for labeling several planarian tissues. Developmental Dynamics 239:2888–2897, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

View Full Article with Supporting Information (HTML) Get PDF (5779K)