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Serotonin is essential for eye regeneration in planaria Schmidtea mediterranea
Author(s) -
Sarkar Arunabha,
Mukundan Namita,
Sowndarya Sai,
Dubey Vinay Kumar,
Babu Rosana,
Lakshmanan Vairavan,
Rangiah Kannan,
Panicker Mitradas M.,
Palakodeti Dasaradhi,
Subramanian Sabarinath Peruvemba,
Subramanian Ramaswamy
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
febs letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.593
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1873-3468
pISSN - 0014-5793
DOI - 10.1002/1873-3468.13607
Subject(s) - planaria , regeneration (biology) , progenitor cell , microbiology and biotechnology , stem cell , planarian , biology , population , serotonin , biochemistry , medicine , environmental health , receptor
Planaria is an ideal system to study factors involved in regeneration and tissue homeostasis. Little is known about the role of metabolites and small molecules in stem cell maintenance and lineage specification in planarians. Using liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry (LC‐MS)‐based quantitative metabolomics, we determined the relative levels of metabolites in stem cells, progenitors, and differentiated cells of the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea . Tryptophan and its metabolic product serotonin are significantly enriched in stem cells and progenitor population. Serotonin biosynthesis in these cells is brought about by a noncanonical enzyme, phenylalanine hydroxylase. Knockdown of Smed‐pah leads to complete disappearance of eyes in regenerating planaria, while exogenous supply of serotonin and its precursor rescues the eyeless phenotype. Our results demonstrate a key role for serotonin in eye regeneration.