Project description:The fundamental of regeneration process of invertebrates involves the renewal, differentiation and reprogramming of stem cell in an orchestrated manner. It has been known that N6-methyladenosine (m6A) regulates stem cell renewal and differentiation. It is still unclear if m6A is crucial for the regeneration at whole-organism level. Here, we demonstrate that wtap knockdown mediated m6A depletion impairs planarian regeneration upon amputation. The cell cycle related genes displayed decreased m6A while increased expression levels in response to wtap knockdown. The m6A depletion induced phenotypes can be rescued by double-knocking down these genes together with wtap, suggesting that m6A-mediated cell cycle controls planarian regeneration. Further analysis combining the single-cell sequencing unveils a unique neuronal progenitor-like cell type, named NCC and characterized by specific expression of grn, which is indispensable for neuroregeneration. Overall, our study uncovered an essential role of wtap-mediated m6A modification in regulating stem cell population dynamics and homeostasis in terms of general-body regeneration.
Project description:Regeneration is the regrowth of damaged tissues or organs, a vital mechanism in response to damages from primitive organisms to higher mammals. Planarian possesses active whole-body regenerative capability owning to its vast reservoir of adult stem cells, neoblasts, providing an ideal model to delineate the underlying mechanisms for regeneration. RNA N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification participates in many biological processes, including stem cell self-renewal and differentiation, in particular the regeneration of hematopoietic stem cells and axons. However, how m6A controls regeneration at the whole-organism level remains largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate that the depletion of m6A methyltransferase regulatory subunit wtap abolishes planarian regeneration, potentially through regulating genes related to cell-cell communication and cell cycle. Single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) analysis unveils that the wtap knockdown induces a unique type of neural progenitor-like cells (NP-like cells), characterized by specific expression of the cell-cell communication ligand grn. Intriguingly, the depletion of m6A-modified transcripts grn/cdk9 (or cdk7) axis rescues the defective regeneration of planarian caused by wtap knockdown. Overall, our study reveals an indispensable role of m6A modification in regulating whole-organism regeneration.
Project description:The fundamental of regeneration process of invertebrates involves the renewal, differentiation and reprogramming of stem cell in an orchestrated manner. It has been known that N6-methyladenosine (m6A) regulates stem cell renewal and differentiation. It is still unclear if m6A is crucial for the regeneration at whole-organism level. Here, we demonstrate that wtap knockdown mediated m6A depletion impairs planarian regeneration upon amputation. The cell cycle related genes displayed decreased m6A while increased expression levels in response to wtap knockdown. The m6A depletion induced phenotypes can be rescued by double-knocking down these genes together with wtap, suggesting that m6A-mediated cell cycle controls planarian regeneration. Further analysis combining the single-cell sequencing unveils a unique neuronal progenitor-like cell type, named NCC and characterized by specific expression of grn, which is indispensable for neuroregeneration. Overall, our study uncovered an essential role of wtap-mediated m6A modification in regulating stem cell population dynamics and homeostasis in terms of general-body regeneration.
