University of Innsbruck
Institute of Zoology

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  • 3.1: Institute of Zoology
  • 3.2: Research
    • 3.2.1: Body plan evolution
    • 3.2.2: Cellular homeostasis
    • 3.2.3: Electron Microscopy
    • 3.2.4: Ecotoxicology
    • 3.2.5: Development of the Circulatory System
    • 3.2.6: Circadian rhythms
    • aktuelle Seite: 3.2.7:
      Regeneration
    • 3.2.8: Stem Cell
    • 3.2.9: Hypoxia adaptation
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• Reinhard Rieger Award

Regeneration

We are interested in the regeneration capacity of free-living flatworms and study regeneration processes in a flatworm model organism, Macrostomum lignano.
Macrostomum lignano and other flatworms, such as polyclads, are most suitable for our work because of their considerable regeneration capacity and their likely totipotent, i.e. all-powerful, stem cell system.

Stem cell labeling with BrdU (bromodeoxyuridine) in wholemount animals of Macrostomum lignano and in histological sections provides important clues to answer some questions:

What are the properties of a regeneration blastema?
How does the stem cell system react to amputation of a body part?
How many stem cells are necessary for successful regeneration?

We also try to understand the relationship and find similarities between regeneration processes and embryonic and postembryonic development.

Most intriguing is the question whether repeated amputation and regeneration in an individual flatworm can slow down or even reverse ageing processes.

In cooperation with the Praxisvolksschule Tirol and supported by the Ministry of Research and Science and the Austrian Exchange Service in the framework of a Sparkling Science project we conduct comparative regeneration studies with free-living flatworms of Tyrolean waters, complemented by a grant by the Tyrolean Science Fund (TWF).

Published papers with acknowledged support of these funding agencies

• Dirks U, Gruber-Vodicka HR, Leisch N, Bulgheresi S, Egger B, Ladurner P, Ott JA (2012) Bacterial symbiosis maintenance in the asexually reproducing and regenerating flatworm Paracatenula galateia.
  PLoS One, 7:e34709 open access (Sparkling Science)
  
  
• Martin-Duran JM, Egger B (2012) Developmental diversity in free-living flatworms.
  EvoDevo, 3:7 open access (Sparkling Science, TWF)
  
  
• Gammoudi M, Egger B, Tekaya S, Noreña C (2012) The genus Leptoplana (Leptoplanidae, Polycladida) in the Mediterranean basin. Redescription of the species Leptoplana mediterranea (Bock, 1913) comb. nov.
  Zootaxa 3178, 45-56 open access (Sparkling Science)
  
  
• Gammoudi M, Noreña C, Tekaya S, Prantl V, Egger B (2011) Insemination and embryonic development of some Mediterranean polyclad flatworms.
  Invertebrate Reproduction and Development, doi:10.1080/07924259.2011.611825 pdf (Sparkling Science, TWF)
  
  
• Kuales G, De Mulder K, Glashauser J, Salvenmoser W, Takashima S, Hartenstein V, Berezikov E, Salzburger W, Ladurner P (2011) Boule-like genes regulate male and female gametogenesis in the flatworm Macrostomum lignano.
  Developmental Biology 357, 111-132 pdf (Sparkling Science)
  
  
• Salvenmoser W, Egger B, Achatz JG, Ladurner P, Hess MW (2010) Electron microscopy of flatworms: standard and cryo-preparation methods.
  Methods in Cell Biology 96, 307-330 bookzilla amazon pdf (Sparkling Science)
  
  
• Willems M, Egger B, Wolff C, Mouton S, Houthoofd W, Fonderie P, Couvreur M, Artois T, Borgonie G (2009) Embryonic origins of hull cells in the flatworm Macrostomum lignano through cell lineage analysis: developmental and phylogenetic implications
  Development Genes and Evolution 219, 409-417 pdf (Sparkling Science)

Members of this workgroup

• Bernhard Egger
• Johannes Girstmair
• Simona Migliano
• Veronika Prantl
• Thomas Zauchner