TitleDDX24 is required for muscle fiber organization and the suppression of wound-induced Wnt activity necessary for pole re-establishment during planarian regeneration.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2022
AuthorsSarkar SR, Dubey VKumar, Jahagirdar A, Lakshmanan V, Haroon MMohamed, Sowndarya S, Sowdhamini R, Palakodeti D
JournalDev Biol
Date Published2022 May 03
ISSN1095-564X
Abstract

Planarians have a remarkable ability to undergo whole-body regeneration. Successful regeneration outcome is determined by processes like polarity establishment at the wound site, which is followed by pole (organizer) specification. Interestingly, these determinants are almost exclusively expressed by muscles in these animals. However, the molecular toolkit that enables the functional versatility of planarian muscles remains poorly understood. Here we report that SMED_DDX24, a D-E-A-D Box RNA helicase, is necessary for planarian survival and regeneration. We found that DDX24 is enriched in muscles and its knockdown disrupts muscle fiber organization. This leads to defective pole specification, which in turn results in misregulation of many positional control genes specifically during regeneration. ddx24 RNAi also upregulates wound-induced Wnt signalling. Suppressing this ectopic Wnt activity rescues the knockdown phenotype by enabling better anterior pole regeneration. To summarize, our work highlights the role of an RNA helicase in muscle fiber organization, and modulating amputation-induced wnt levels, both of which seem critical for pole re-organization, thereby regulating whole-body regeneration.

DOI10.1016/j.ydbio.2022.04.011
Alternate JournalDev Biol
PubMed ID35523320