BioTech Encyclopedia

Planarian memory and bioelectric patterning

Regeneration: basic research on living systems, not technology.

Also: flatworms, two-headed planaria, bioelectricity

Planarian flatworms can regrow a whole body, including the brain, from a small piece, and their body plan is partly stored in electrical patterns.

Known properties: Planarian memory and bioelectric patterning

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Timeline

  1. 2013 Memory that survives head regrowth
  2. 2017 Rewriting body plans with bioelectricity

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lab biology 2013

Memory that survives head regrowth

Shomrat and Levin built an automated trainer and reported that planarians formed long-term memories that persisted after their heads were cut off and regrown.

As reported in: Shomrat, Levin (2013). An automated training paradigm reveals long-term memory in planaria and its persistence through head regeneration. Journal of Experimental Biology. doi:10.1242/jeb.087809

Abstract only

lab biology 2017

Rewriting body plans with bioelectricity

Durant and colleagues briefly altered electrical signalling in planarian fragments, producing a stable share of two-headed worms; when the normal-looking ones were cut again, the same share regrew two heads, revealing a hidden change in their patterning.

As reported in: Durant, Morokuma, Fields et al. (2017). Long-Term, Stochastic Editing of Regenerative Anatomy via Targeting Endogenous Bioelectric Gradients. Biophysical Journal. doi:10.1016/j.bpj.2017.04.011

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