Identification and characterization of regeneration specific genes

Abstract

The earthworm Eudrilus eugeniae has a wonderful ability to regenerate lost newlineSegments The skin of the worm has an outermost epidermal layer followed by a thick newlinecircular muscle layer and an innermost thin longitudinal cell layer During the process of newlineregeneration the circular muscle layer decreased in thickness and longitudinal cell layer newlineincreased The histological analysis of the regenerated worm shows that the longitudinal cell newlinelayer forms the regeneration blastema BrdU labeling retention assay confirmed that the newlinecircular muscle and longitudinal cell layers have BrdU positive cells which migrate from the newlineadjacent segments to the regeneration blastema In addition it was noted that the cells of the newlineearthworm E eugeniae have the property of autofluorescence Autofluorescence was found newlinein the cytoplasm but not in the nucleus It has been also found that the major source for newlineautofluorescence is riboflavin Further it was also demonstrated that supplementation with newlineriboflavin increases the rate of regeneration while regeneration was hampered by reduced newlinelevels of riboflavin newline newline