The planarian Schmidtea mediterranea is rapidly emerging as a model organism for the study of regeneration, tissue homeostasis and stem cell biology. The recent sequencing, assembly and annotation of its genome are expected to further buoy the biomedical importance of this organism. In order to make the extensive data associated with the genome sequence accessible to the biomedical and planaria...

Why does regeneration take place in some animals but not others? Increased understanding of gene function is required to dissect the genetics, cell biology, and physiological aspects that make regeneration possible. An unlikely model animal, the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea, is proving valuable in this endeavor.

1 Dipartimento di Matematica, Università della Calabria, Via Pietro Bucci, 87036 Rende (CS), Italy 2 DIMET, Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria, Via Graziella, Località Feo di Vito, 89060 Reggio Calabria, Italy 3 DEIS Università della Calabria, Via Pietro Bucci, 87036 Rende (CS), Italy [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] ∗ Autore di rif...