Muscle and neuronal guidepost-like cells facilitate planarian visual system regeneration

Abstract

Neuronal circuits damaged or lost after injury can be regenerated in some adult organisms, but the mechanisms enabling this process are largely unknown. We used the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea to study visual system regeneration after injury. We identify a rare population of muscle cells tightly associated with photoreceptor axons at stereotyped positions in both uninjured and regenerating animals. Together with a neuronal population, these cells promote de novo assembly of the visual system in diverse injury and eye transplantation contexts. These muscle guidepost-like cells are specified independently of eyes, and their position is defined by an extrinsic array of positional information cues. These findings provide a mechanism, involving adult formation of guidepost-like cells typically observed in embryos, for axon pattern restoration in regeneration.