Carnegie Institution of Washington, Department of Embryology, 115 West University Parkway, Baltimore, MD 21210
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| Communicated by Donald D. Brown, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Baltimore, MD, February 19, 1999 (received for review January 22, 1999)
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Metazoan regeneration is one of the least understood fundamental problems of biology.
The lack of progress in understanding this phenomenon at the molecular level has been due to the poor
regenerative abilities of the genetic organisms used for developmental studies, as well as the difficulties
encountered with molecular and genetic manipulations of the commonly studied vertebrate models
the urodele amphibians). Here, we demonstrate that introduction of double-stranded RNA selectively
abrogates gene function in planarians, a classic model of regeneration. The ability to eliminate gene functionin
a regenerating organism such as the planarian overcomes previous experimental limitations and opens the study
of animal regeneration to unprecedented levels of molecular detail.
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* To whom reprint requests should be addressed e-mail: Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado
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| Copyright © 1999 by The National Academy of Sciences
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