DNA "Tattoos" Link Adult, Daughter Stem Cells in Planarians

sea-maid submitted, created time 3 months 3 weeks (www.sciencedaily.com)

The title of this article is poetic, but it could stand to be better organized. The authors refer to a certain method of DNA identification as a "tattoo," but don't immediately say what it is. One has to dig through the repetitive and error-strewn paragraphs before one finds this: "the researchers devised methods to detect specific differences in gene expression in the BrdU-labeled cells. The researchers identified 259 genes associated with the stem cells and their daughters. When the U team disabled some of these genes, they found that in some cases no defects were observed, while in others deficiencies were detected in the way the cells were patterned in regenerating planarians." The research itself seems interesting, but we should probably look for other writeups of it. Overall, this article seems geared for people very unfamiliar with the science involved, to the point of explaining what nucleotides are. However, it does not do a good enough job of explaining its own core ideas for me to recommending to any laypeople. This quality of writing is unusually low for Sciencedaily.com.

Keywords: planarians flatworms stem cells cancer stem cells ovarian stem cells adult stem cells