385C Poster - 04. Stem cells, regeneration and tissue injury
Saturday April 09, 1:30 PM - 3:30 PM

Authors:
Michael Abrams ^{1, 3}; Fayth Tan ¹; Yutian Li ¹; Ty Basinger ^{1, 5}; Martin Heithe ¹; Anish Sarma ¹; Iris Lee ¹; Zevin Condiotte ¹; Misha Raffiee ^{1, 4}; John Dabiri ²; David Gold ^{1, 6}; Lea Goentoro ¹

Affiliations:
1) Division of biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA ; 2) Graduate Aerospace Laboratories and Mechanical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA; 3) Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California at Berkeley; 4) Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University; 5) Department of Biology and Allied Health Sciences, Bloomsburg University; 6) Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California at Davis

Keywords:
k. regeneration; o. tissue growth and remodeling

Can limb regeneration be induced? Drosophila belongs to the holometabolan insects, which do not regenerate limbs or other appendages as adults. However, developing imaginal discs in larvae can regenerate, possibly suggesting an inherent ability to regenerate. In this study, we found that limb regeneration in adult flies can be induced. Strikingly, limb regeneration can be induced using, simply, nutrient supplementation with the amino acid L-leucine and the growth hormone insulin. Almost 50% the treated flies partially regrew their amputated limbs. The new leg part redeveloped cuticles and sensory bristles. Some flies completely reformed the amputated leg segment, followed by a joint and the beginning of next segment. This is the first demonstration that patterned regenerative response can be induced in adult Drosophila limb. Finally, the same strategy of leucine and insulin/sugar administration induce appendage regeneration in the moon jellyfish and digit regeneration in mice. These results suggest that latent regeneration is prevalent in animals and can be activated with relatively simple environmental stimuli. Our results present Drosophila as a novel system for studying how to induce regeneration.

Reference: MJ Abrams, FH Tan, Y Li, T Basinger, ML Heithe, AA Sarma, IT Lee, ZJ Condiotte, M Raffiee, JO Dabiri, DA Gold, L Goentoro. A conserved strategy for inducing appendage regeneration in moon jellyfish, Drosophila, and mice. eLife 2021;10:e65092 DOI: 10.7554/eLife.65092