Vertebrate regeneration requires a complex molecular "crosstalk" between cells, similar to the communication that occurs in the development of an animal from a single cell to an adult organism, the University of Kentucky reported. Certain genes are activated and deactivated at specific times to turn tissue cells into body parts.
By studying the genetic mechanisms that allow for regeneration in our distant ancestors researchers could develop new healing abilities hidden within the human genome.
Researcher Jeramiah Smith looked at sea lampreys, which diverged from our common ancestors during the Cambrian period 500 million years ago. These creatures have the ability to regenerate spinal cord cells.
"By accessing the genomes of these animals, describing them, and then comparing them with other genomes that have been sequenced, you're often the first person to know what was going on half a billion years ago. It's sort of like the kid-in-the-dinosaur-museum thing," Smith said.
Smith also works with Stephen Randal Voss sequencing the genomes of salamanders, which veered off from the common vertebrate about 300 million years ago. The axolotls salamander has a genome 10 times larger than humans' and has the ability to regenerate body parts.
"It's hard to find a body part they can't regenerate," Voss said. "Salamanders in general, and axolotls especially so, the limbs, the tail, the spinal cord - even half of their brain has been removed and shown to regenerate."
The resarch team assembled a large store of RNA taken from axolotl RNA. They hope to create a model on how genes are turned on and off over small timescales.
The team also studied the zebrafish for its ability to regenerate retinal cells.
Degenerative diseases are the leading cause of blindness in humans, and researching how zebrafish regenerate these cells could aid the development of new treatments.
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