I already highlighted Chimezie, but this was a team effort! So big thanks to @marleneoesterle.bsky.social , Ameneh, Ugonna, Natalie, Sapna, and Emma from the lab (leighnd.github.io/people/) and collaborators @consigliocr.bsky.social , @eliferoglu.bsky.social , and @andrassimon.bsky.social!
18/n
Leigh lab members Lund University Wallenberg Centre for Molecular Medicine Lund Stem Cell Center
Using light-activated CRISPR in zebrafish, we triggered synchronized DNA breaks and track the repair process.
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Well ... DNA repair is very different in embryos compared to tissue culture cells. Embryos repair DNA breaks incredibly fast - within minutes!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
James Gagnon
We think that the findings in zebrafish that Treg deletion impairs regeneration implies a role of Tregs is to suppress adaptive immune responses…but when you don’t have any cytotoxic T cells (or B cells) then Tregs become dispensable. 13/n
When thinking about coaxing regeneration in non-regenerative species, like humans, the simpler the the mechanisms the (hopefully) easier it is to reawaken these regenerative programs. So now we have a refined understanding of the relationship between adaptive immunity and regeneration.
16/n
More broadly, these findings help cut down the number of essential inputs needed for complex tissue regeneration. We can simplify the model a bit and work in this adaptive immune-vacuum as a way to tease apart absolutely essential mechanisms of regeneration.
15/n
But...it is likely that adaptive immunity presents a barrier to regeneration and thus our current and future work is focused on understanding how salamanders balance adaptive immune responses in the context of complex tissue regeneration.
17/n
Altogether, we observe that adaptive immunity is dispensable for appendage regeneration in highly regenerative vertebrates. As I mentioned at the outset, this work is corroborated by our collaborator Max Yun who had a parallel project running using axolotls and zebrafish. 12/n
