Canonical Wnt Signaling is Involved in Anterior Regeneration of the Annelid Aeolosoma viride

Abstract

Annelids are regenerative animals, but the underlying mechanisms await to be discovered. Because Wnt pathway is involved in animal regeneration to varying extents, we used Aeolosoma viride to interrogate whether and how this pathway plays a role in annelid anterior regeneration. We found that the expression of wnt4, {beta}-catenin and nuclear-localized {beta}-catenin protein were up-regulated during blastemal formation and down-regulated as anterior structures gradually reformed. Consistent with potential Wnt activities in the blastema, treatments with either Wnt pathway activator (azakenpaullone) or inhibitor (XAV939) inhibited head regeneration, which further supports a role of Wnt pathway during anterior regeneration. Detailed tissue-level examines demonstrated that wound closure and blastemal cell proliferation were impaired by over-activating the pathway, and that neuronal and musculature differentiation were affected under Wnt inhibition. Combined, gene expression and chemical inhibitor data suggest the presence of dynamic Wnt activities at different anterior regeneration stages: an initial low activity may be required for wound closure, and the following activation may signal blastemal formation and cell differentiation. In a nutshell, we propose that the canonical Wnt signaling regulates blastemal cellular responses during annelid regeneration.