Meeting Abstract
The Notch signaling pathway plays a key role in metazoan development. While the role of this pathway in development is quite clear, the functional significance of it in regeneration, the process of regrowing lost or damaged body parts, is unknown. Therefore, the focus of this study is to determine the function of the Notch signaling pathway in regeneration. We used as our study system the brittle star Ophioderma brevispinum (Echinodermata, Ophiuroidea), which is capable of autotomizing its body appendages (arms) and quickly growing them back. To determine the role of Notch signaling in regeneration, we used the pharmacological agent N-[N-(3,5-Difluorophenacetyl)-L-alanyl]-S-phenylglycine t-butyl ester (DAPT, 3 μM, 14 days) to continuously inhibit the pathway in regenerating animals and then examined the effect of the inhibition at the morphological and cellular levels. Our results showed that arm regeneration was significantly impaired in the DAPT-treated animals as compared to the control group, resulting in a 38% reduction in the length of the outgrowth (Student’s t-Test, P=0.01). We are currently investigating which cellular processes (cell proliferation, apoptosis, cell differentiation) are regulated by the Notch pathway. In the future, we plan to expand this study by conducting an RNA-Seq analysis to determine the specific genes that are regulated by this pathway in regeneration. Overall, our data indicate that Notch signaling is required for arm regeneration in the brittle star O. brevispinum.
