De novo transcriptome assembly and comprehensive characterization of gene expression in proliferating cells of regeneration-capable flatworm Macrostomum lignano advance this organism as a powerful model for stem cell research.

A conserved alternative splicing program is specific to planarian stem cells and is controlled by the highly conserved splicing factors CELF and MBNL; therefore, this mode of regulating stem cells is likely ancestral to all animals.

RNAi screening in planarians finds that inhibition of the TEC-family protein tyrosine kinase tec-1 increases the regeneration of neurons through enhancement of cell survival.

A phylogeny of all major groups of flatworms based on hundreds of genes sheds new light the early evolution of this important metazoan phylum, with particular significance for the original of vertebrate parasitism.

Signaling molecules expressed in overlapping body-wide transcriptional gradients determine central axis positional identity in whole-body regeneration.

Physiological porphyrin biosynthesis causes photosensitivity in fasted planarians, providing an experimentally tractable animal model of acute porphyrias.

Adult stem cells acquire increased DNA damage as they migrate to a wound site and require active DNA repair mechanisms for normal migration.

Application of laser-capture microdissection to planarian intestinal tissue provides a new tool for analysis of tissue-specific gene expression in flatworms, and a new resource to advance investigations of gastrointestinal regeneration.

Tapeworms grow and regenerate using stem cells distributed throughout their bodies, but their regeneration competence relies upon the unique micro-environment created by the head and neck.

Single-cell RNA sequencing identifies an adult regional gene expression map in planarian muscle that includes two FGFRL-Wnt circuits controlling head and trunk tissue pattern.