About this Research Topic
The ability to rebuild lost body parts is widespread and highly variable among animals. Some animals have extremely limited regenerative capacities while others can regenerate entire bodies. The explanation for this extensive variation in regenerative abilities across phyla remains largely unknown. Highly regenerative animal models such as planaria, hydra, zebrafish, and salamander, have significantly advanced the understanding of the cellular and molecular basis of regeneration. However, fundamental questions remain unanswered, such as: How does regeneration evolve? Why can some species regenerate body parts while others cannot? Are there conserved molecular and cellular toolkits for regeneration? To answer these questions, we need to expand the array of research organisms.
In recent years, new research systems for regenerative biology have emerged, such as the spiny mouse, the three-banded acoel, Iberian ribbed newt, the common octopus, to list a few. With new genome assemblies, cutting-edge imaging techniques, single-cell transcriptomics, and epigenetics, the time for evolutionary studies on regeneration is ripe. Furthermore, the impacts of anthropogenic global climate change (i.e.: increase in global temperatures, water acidification, and deoxygenation) on the regenerative abilities of marine and freshwater species remain largely unknown. Finally, a comparative approach to studying regenerative processes may bring us closer to identifying key cellular and molecular events linked to successful regenerative outcomes, with the potential to yield therapeutic routes for enhancing regenerative capacities in humans.
We are interested in manuscripts that explore regenerative processes in animals and plants, leveraging new and emerging research organisms to understand cellular, molecular, and regulatory mechanisms (genetic or epigenetic) of regeneration. These can include studies using a wide variety of methods and scales of regeneration, from cellular to organismal level. We particularly welcome studies on:
• New research organisms that inform regenerative processes, novel or traditionally studied in other research systems.
• Comparative studies using established and/or emerging/new research organisms.
• Impact of abiotic/biotic environmental factors on regenerative processes.
• Novel methods adapted to or established for novel/emerging research organisms.
• Comparative studies based on museum specimens and/or evidence from the fossil record.
• Description of cellular, molecular and gene-regulatory components underlying regenerative processes.
• Studies on the adaptive role of regeneration.
• Computational approaches to mechanistic and/or evolutionary aspects of regenerative phenomena
In recent years, new research systems for regenerative biology have emerged, such as the spiny mouse, the three-banded acoel, Iberian ribbed newt, the common octopus, to list a few. With new genome assemblies, cutting-edge imaging techniques, single-cell transcriptomics, and epigenetics, the time for evolutionary studies on regeneration is ripe. Furthermore, the impacts of anthropogenic global climate change (i.e.: increase in global temperatures, water acidification, and deoxygenation) on the regenerative abilities of marine and freshwater species remain largely unknown. Finally, a comparative approach to studying regenerative processes may bring us closer to identifying key cellular and molecular events linked to successful regenerative outcomes, with the potential to yield therapeutic routes for enhancing regenerative capacities in humans.
We are interested in manuscripts that explore regenerative processes in animals and plants, leveraging new and emerging research organisms to understand cellular, molecular, and regulatory mechanisms (genetic or epigenetic) of regeneration. These can include studies using a wide variety of methods and scales of regeneration, from cellular to organismal level. We particularly welcome studies on:
• New research organisms that inform regenerative processes, novel or traditionally studied in other research systems.
• Comparative studies using established and/or emerging/new research organisms.
• Impact of abiotic/biotic environmental factors on regenerative processes.
• Novel methods adapted to or established for novel/emerging research organisms.
• Comparative studies based on museum specimens and/or evidence from the fossil record.
• Description of cellular, molecular and gene-regulatory components underlying regenerative processes.
• Studies on the adaptive role of regeneration.
• Computational approaches to mechanistic and/or evolutionary aspects of regenerative phenomena
Keywords: Regeneration, Development, Stem Cell, Evolution, Ecology
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
