James Humphreys

4.23.14
Science 1

Planaria Lab Report

Problem: Which section of a planarian will regenerate first, the anterior,
mid section or posterior?

Hypothesis: If trisected, the midsection will regenerate first.

Theory: Planaria are special in the sense that they can produce offspring
either asexually or sexually. They are also hermaphrodites, which means
that they have male and female gonads. This means that they can mate
with any planarian they may find. All they have to do is exchange sperm
through the genital pores, and then theyre done. After that, the eggs are
laid, and genetically diverse planaria are born. This makes fertilization
much easier, and therefore makes it easier to produce more planaria. This
is a helpful adaptation, because it makes it easy to have a stable
population.
Planaria also have another amazing function: The ability to
produce asexually. This means that they do not need a partner to
produce offspring. They have the ability to regenerate at astounding
speeds, making severed parts able to become new planaria in a matter
of a few days. There are two ways that they go about asexual
reproduction: tail dropping and fragmentation. Tail dropping is them
detaching their own tail to become a new planarian, and fragmentation
is when their body is torn, ripped, or sliced apart into multiple pieces, and
they regenerate.
Neoblasts are the undifferentiated, or totipotent, stem cells
that migrate to the injured area when the planarian is separated or drops
its tail. The cells then begin to polarize and differentiate into the
specialized cells that are needed to build a blastoma, a clump of cells
around the incision to seal it. They then form themselves into a new head,
tail, or midsection, depending on whats needed. I hypothesized that the
midsection would regenerate first because of the observations we made
after trisecting our own planaria.











Conclusion: In this lab, we trisected a planarian and recorded its
regeneration. I hypothesized that the midsection would be the first piece
to regenerate. My data shows significant growth on the midsection by
day 2, although the head was moving the most. By day 4 the midsection
had doubled in size, while the head had mostly stayed the same. The
posterior was very inactive throughout this, growing only a little sometimes
never moving. On day 5, the head, midsection, and posterior had all
regenerated a new head, but the midsection had, for the most part,
become an entirely new planarian. It was also moving much more than
any other piece. In my period, 8 percent of students witnessed their
anterior redevelop first, 54 percent reported the midsection regenerating
first, and 36 percent said the posterior grew back first. In the grade, the
numbers are slightly different. 37% reported the anterior being the fastest
to renew, 49% reported the midsection, and only 14% reported the
posterior.

Analysis: My results were valid. I hypothesized that the midsection would
regenerate first, and that hypothesis was correct. 54% of people in my
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Anterior Midsection Posterior
P
e
r
c
e
n
t
a
g
e
s

o
f

G
r
o
u
p

Body Sections
Which Piece Regenerated
Fastest?
1st Period
7th Grade
class witnessed the same thing. In the 7
th
grade as a whole, that number
was 49%, only a 5% difference. Thats very close. On the other hand, the
posterior witnessed a 22%% decrease between 1
st
and 7
th
period, and the
head witnessed a 29% increase. Those are very inconsistent results. The
hardest part of the lab to control was the positioning of the planaria. They
sometimes would fold up into shrunken versions of themselves, and then I
would sketch it like that, realizing that it was much different looking after I
was already done. If my results were not accurate, I might attribute it to
the fact that we had no proper form of measurement, but rather had to
eyeball it. Next time, a way to compare the planaria day-by-day more
accurately would be helpful.
Although the neoblasts found in planaria can be closely related to
human stem cells, there are still a few differences. Planaria can
regenerate grievous wounds, such as having their head severed, into a
completely new planaria within a few days. Humans do not have that
ability, as the stem cells dont regenerate large external body parts. Also,
the neoblasts in a planarian migrate from almost everywhere in the body,
while the human stem cells only come from nearby. But, despite this, there
are a plethora of similarities between the two. They are both
undifferentiated cells that can become specialized into any cell in order
to help the body. They have the potential to become anything from a skin
to a nerve cell, depending on the circumstances. This is the main
correlation between neoblasts found in planaria and stem cells found in
humans.
When stem cell therapy was first discovered to be a viable
treatment option, much excitement ensued, positive and negative. There
was controversy due to people believing that hES (human embryonic
stem cells) were wrong, because they are human embryos and have the
potential to become humans. People thought that destroying a human
embryo, no matter how young, was unsettling. To prevent this, scientists
have developed induced pluripotent stem cells, which are normal
specialized cells being transformed into undifferentiated cells that can be
used at stem cells. This is a great alternative, but isnt quite as perfect as
using hES cells, as they are the gold standard for a pluripotent cells. IPS
cells are attempts to recreate hES cells as closely as possible, so they
therefore cannot be as perfect. Lastly, there are STAP cells (stimulus
triggered acquisition of pluripotency cells), but they are controversial.
They are said to be differentiated cells that become pluripotent when
exposed to a trigger, be it physical or chemical. They are almost
exactly like IPS cells, except it is much easier to make STAP cells and they
dont require as many steps as IPS cell development. But alas, many
scientists tried to create these STAP cells to no avail, and the company
employing the scientist that discovered them investigated her work. It was
uncovered that she had formulated false data to support her claims, and
as a result, STAP cells are still controversial. But overall, the combination of
these 3 stem cell creation techniques have helped quell the anti-stem cell
opinions of the world, and paved the way to stem cells becoming an
incredibly efficient form of treatment.

Bibliography:

Works Cited
"Frequently Asked Questions." What Are Embryonic Stem Cells? [Stem Cell Information].
N.p., n.d. Web. 07 May 2014.
"Frequently Asked Questions." What Are Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells? [Stem Cell
Information]. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2014.
"Knoepfler Lab Stem Cell Lab." Knoepfler Lab Stem Cell Lab. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 May 2014.
"Result Filters." National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of
Medicine, n.d. Web. 09 May 2014.
"The Stem Cell Debate: Is It Over?" The Stem Cell Debate: Is It Over? N.p., n.d. Web. 07 May
2014.
"Stress Turns Ordinary Cells Pluripotent." Riken Corp. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 May 2014.