They cut off the heads of almost 150 flatworms the heads take 14 days to regenerate, so the researchers bathed the worms in a chemical known to interrupt the body’s electrical signals for the first few days. ![]() The researchers decided to see what would happen if they interrupted gap junctions, spaces through which electrical signals transmit information between cells. By understanding similar changes in people, scientists could learn how to correct birth defects, or help the body regenerate after an injury, according to a press release.Įlectrical signals play a lot of important roles in the body, from carrying information from nerves to the brain to updating and rewriting the structure of the brain itself. The work isn’t purely helpful for understanding flatworm biology, it could also help with human medicine. The researchers revealed their fascinating findings in a study published yesterday in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences. Even more astounding, this is possible without altering the animal’s DNA. ![]() Now scientists have figured out how to drastically change this flatworm’s head shape to resemble totally different species of worms. The flatworm girardia dorotocephala has a pretty characteristic head shape: it’s almost a perfect triangle (the sides of its face slope into a point and ear-like appendages called auricles jut out from either side).
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