Autophagy-related Djatg8 is required for remodeling in planarian Dugesia japonica

Planarians are the earliest free-living platyhelminthe with triploblastic and bilateral-symmetry. As an integral component of tissue homeostasis and regeneration, remodeling occurs constantly in the general planarian life history. In the present study, we isolate three planarian genes ( , , ) that show high sequence similarity with from yeast and human. Results from whole-mount hybridization indicate that and are strongly expressed in blastemas during regeneration. Using RNA interference, inhibition of gene expression has no obvious effect on planarian morphological changes. Interestingly, downregulation of gene expression in planarians results in defects in blastema regeneration and tissue regression. Furthermore, loss of expression leads to tissue degradation. Taken together, our results suggest that and play important roles in planarian remodeling during regeneration.