Cytoskeletal proteins and morphogenesis in planarians

Regeneration processes employ a series of differentiative events related to various embryonic morphogenetic phenomena in which the cytoskeleton plays a fundamental role. Planarians are an excellent model to study development mechanism because they show an exceptional physiological morphogenetic plasticity that is also at the basis of their extraordinary regenerative ability. In this paper we discuss results concerning two cytoskeleton components, actin and tubulin, during morphogenetic processes of the planarian Schmidtea polychroa. Comparative studies on cytoskeleton function during morphogenetic processes in evolutionary-distant animal models can offer important new insights in the fields of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine.