Sci/Tech How to regrow a head

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Cut most species of flatworm in half and you end up with two flatworms. The front half will grow a new tail and, more impressively, the back half will grow a new head - complete with a fully functioning brain.
But a few species of these worms mysteriously lack this ability, at least when it comes to regrowing a head.
Now, three teams of researchers have not only zeroed in on the biological reason for this limitation, they've also managed to restore the worms' full regenerative abilities by manipulating a single genetic pathway.
The worms in question are known as planarians. Usually about a centimetre long, they live under rocks in freshwater ecosystems such as streams and ponds.
Why some planarians can so easily regenerate a head but others can't is a question that has long puzzled scientists.
"This is really just a classic problem in the field," says Phillip Newmark, a biologist at the University of Illinois, in the US.
Hoping to study possible molecular mechanisms behind the difference, he dispatched his postdoc James Sikes into the field to search for specimens of Procotyla fluviatilis, the only North American species of planarian that can't regenerate its head.
Read More: http://www.stuff.co.nz/science/8962717/How-to-regrow-a-head
 
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