Organ Regeneration In Zebrafish: Unraveling The Mechanisms

Now researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified an essential cellular pathway in **zebrafish** that paves the way for limb regeneration by unlocking gene expression patterns last seen during **embryonic development**. They found that a process known as **histone demethylation** switches cells at the amputation site from an inactive to an active state, which turns on the genes required to build a copy of the lost limb. "This is the first real molecular insight into what is happening during limb regeneration," says first author Scott Stewart, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte, Ph.D., who led the Salk team. More "Sciencedaily":[ http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091102171419.htm]

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