Meeting Abstract
Wnt signaling is a common pathway used in development and has been shown to be important for whole-body regeneration. The phylum Annelida is an important taxon to study because there are varying capabilities in whole-body regeneration. Furthermore, with new technologies, functional studies are possible in annelids.We hypothesized Wnt signaling would be important in the regeneration of the annelid Capitella teleta, which can undergo posterior regeneration. In this study, we assessed how inhibition and activation of Wnt signaling during the early stages of regeneration affected regenerative success in C. teleta. We pre-exposed animals to known concentrations of C-59, ETC-159 and Alsterpaullone, commercially available inhibitors and activators of Wnt signaling. After thirty-six hours of pre-exposure, we amputated worms and monitored their regenerative success for three to seven days. Animals were continuously exposed to one of the drugs for the duration of the experiment, and the drug was exchanged every twenty-four hours. Control specimens were amputated under the same conditions but in filtered sea water without a drug. All treatments used antibiotics to minimize bacterial invasion. Regenerative success was assessed on the basis of morphology and a cell proliferation assay. Originally, we predicted that inhibition and activation of wnt signaling would result in no regeneration and increased regenerative ability, respectively. Our preliminary results suggest inhibition of wnt signaling is not critical during early stages of regeneration in C. teleta. This work will provide insight into the mechanisms controlling the early stages of regeneration and repatterning in C. teleta, and will contribute to a larger understanding of the role of wnt signaling in regeneration.
