A robust transcriptional program in newts undergoing multiple events of lens regeneration throughout their lifespan
- University of Dayton, United States
- Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute at Lake Nona, United States
- Sanford-Burnham-Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, United States
- Utsunomiya University, Japan
- Tsukuba University, Japan
- National Institutes for Natural Sciences, Japan
Abstract
Newts have the ability to repeatedly regenerate their lens even during ageing. However, it is unclear whether this regeneration reflects an undisturbed genetic activity. To answer this question, we compared the transcriptomes of lenses, irises and tails from aged newts that had undergone 19-times lens regeneration with the equivalent tissues from young newts that had never experienced lens regeneration. Our analysis indicates that repeatedly regenerated lenses showed a robust transcriptional program comparable to young never-regenerated lenses. In contrast, the tail, that was never regenerated, showed gene expression signatures of ageing. Our analysis strongly suggests that, with respect to gene expression, the regenerated lenses have not deviated from a robust transcriptional program even after multiple events of regeneration throughout the life of the newt. In addition, our study provides a new paradigm in biology, and establishes the newt as a key model for the study of regeneration in relation to ageing.
Article and author information
Author details
Reviewing Editor
- Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado, Stowers Institute for Medical Research, United States
Ethics
Animal experimentation: Usage of animals complied with the University of Dayton institutional regulations, IACUC protocol ID 011-02. All surgical procedures were performed under anesthesia with 0.1% ethyl 3-aminobenzoate.
Version history
- Received: June 21, 2015
- Accepted: November 1, 2015
- Accepted Manuscript published: November 2, 2015 (version 1)
- Version of Record published: December 31, 2015 (version 2)
Copyright
© 2015, Sousounis et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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A robust transcriptional program in newts undergoing multiple events of lens regeneration throughout their lifespan
eLife 4:e09594.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.09594
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