Heterologous reporter expression in the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea through somatic mRNA transfection.
Cell Rep Methods
; 2(10): 100298, 2022 10 24.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-36313809
Planarians have long been studied for their regenerative abilities. Moving forward, tools for ectopic expression of non-native proteins will be of substantial value. Using a luminescent reporter to overcome the strong autofluorescence of planarian tissues, we demonstrate heterologous protein expression in planarian cells and live animals. Our approach is based on the introduction of mRNA through several nanotechnological and chemical transfection methods. We improve reporter expression by altering untranslated region (UTR) sequences and codon bias, facilitating the measurement of expression kinetics in both isolated cells and whole planarians using luminescence imaging. We also examine protein expression as a function of variations in the UTRs of delivered mRNA, demonstrating a framework to investigate gene regulation at the post-transcriptional level. Together, these advances expand the toolbox for the mechanistic analysis of planarian biology and establish a foundation for the development and expansion of transgenic techniques in this unique model system.
Key words
Full text:
1
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Planarians
Limits:
Animals
Language:
En
Journal:
Cell Rep Methods
Year:
2022
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States