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Planarian GSK3s are involved in neural regeneration

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An Erratum to this article was published on 30 January 2008

Abstract

Glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK3) is a key element in several signaling cascades that is known to be involved in both patterning and neuronal organization. It is, therefore, a good candidate to play a role in neural regeneration in planarians. We report the characterization of three GSK3 genes in Schmidtea mediterranea. Phylogenetic analysis shows that Smed-GSK3.1 is highly conserved compared to GSK3 sequences from other species, whereas Smed-GSK3.2 and Smed-GSK3.3 are more divergent. Treatment of regenerating planarians with 1-azakenpaullone, a synthetic GSK3 inhibitor, suggests that planarian GSK3s are essential for normal differentiation and morphogenesis of the nervous system. Cephalic ganglia appear smaller and disconnected in 1-azakenpaullone-treated animals, whereas visual axons are ectopically projected, and the pharynx does not regenerate properly. This phenotype is consistent with a role for Smed-GSK3s in neuronal polarization and axonal growth.

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Acknowledgment

We would like to thank Dr. F Cebrià for providing Smed-RoboA and Smed-Slit riboprobes and for the critical reading of the manuscript, Dr. M Riutort for phylogenetic analysis, Dr. H Orii for providing anti-VC-1, and Dr. I Patten for advice on English style in a previous version. This work was supported by grants BMC2002-03992 and BFU2005-00422 from the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Spain, and grant 2005SGR00769 from AGAUR (Generalitat de Catalunya, Spain). T.A. received a C-RED postdoctoral fellowship from La Generalitat de Catalunya, and M.M. was the recipient of a ‘Formación de Personal Investigador’ fellowship from Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología.

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  1. Departament de Genètica, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Diagonal 645, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

    Teresa Adell, Maria Marsal & Emili Saló

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  1. Teresa Adell
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  2. Maria Marsal
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Correspondence to Teresa Adell or Emili Saló.

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Communicated by D.A. Weisblat

Teresa Adell and Maria Marsal contributed equally to this work.

An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00427-008-0206-3

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Adell, T., Marsal, M. & Saló, E. Planarian GSK3s are involved in neural regeneration. Dev Genes Evol 218, 89–103 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00427-007-0199-3

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