Meeting Abstract
The aquatic oligochaete Lumbriculus variegatus possesses an exceptional ability to regenerate lost body parts. This species also has an organized central nervous system making it an ideal model system to study regeneration. The goal of our lab is to understand regenerative mechanisms in Lumbriculus. Previous studies in the lab have suggested an upregulation of β-catenin protein in the ventral nerve cord of regenerating fragments. This dual function protein activates cell-specific transcription factors in the canonical Wnt signaling pathway or can function as a cell adhesion molecule. The increased activity of β-catenin during regeneration suggests it may play an important role during Lumbriculid regeneration. Proteomic work is limited in non-traditional model systems like Lumbriculus. Thus we are currently developing a QPCR assay to evaluate transcripts encoding β-catenin and other putative regenerative proteins during regeneration. Using bioinformatics tools, we have identified conserved regions of genes coding for regenerative proteins in other organisms. Using these regions we have developed consensus sequences and designed degenerative PCR primers to amplify coding sequences. Gel electrophoresis results indicate that we have PCR products of the expected size for reference genes including alpha tubulin, β-actin and ribosomal protein L8. We are currently testing primer sets for the gene encoding β-catenin and working to develop primers for genes encoding proteins (zicA, FoxD, and Wnt proteins) that are known to regulate regeneration in other model systems. After developing specific QPCR primers our results should help us better understand regenerative mechanisms of L. variegatus and potentially of higher order phyla.
