Scientists have been slicing, dicing and studying worms trying to figure out what allows their ability to regenerate and have made at least a small breakthrough: smedwi-2. That’s the name of the gene that when silenced, doesn’t allow the worm to regenerate. There’s more, but beware it’s kind of brainy for first thing in the morning:

Elimination of smedwi-2 not only leads to an inability to mount a regenerative response after amputation, but also to the eventual demise of unamputated animals along a reproducible series of events, that is, regression of the head tip, curling of the body and tissue disintegration. These defects are very similar to what is observed after the planarian stem cells are destroyed by lethal doses of irradiation.

In other words, not only does the silencing of this smedwi-2 gene stop regeneration, it also kills the worms with the silenced gene that weren’t cut on. Already, people with amputated limbs are being helped by robotics, but wouldn’t it be cool if it would be possible to regrow these limbs organically? It’s coming someday. Wonder if I’ll be here long enough to see it happen?

Don’t laugh, at the end of those study findings it indicates that genes similar to smedwi-2 are found in humans.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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