Miquel Vila-Farré

Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences | MPINAT

The planarian Schmidtea mediterranea is being studied as a model species for regeneration, but the assembly of planarian genomes remains challenging. Here, we report a high-quality haplotype-phased, chromosome-scale genome assembly of the sexual S2 strain of S. mediterranea and high-quality chromosome-scale assemblies of its three close relatives,...

The planarian Schmidtea mediterranea can regenerate its entire body from small tissue fragments and is studied as whole-body regeneration model species. While well-annotated genome resources are critical for understanding regeneration, the assembly and functional analysis of planarian genomes has proven challenging due to extreme compositional bias...

Regenerative abilities vary dramatically across animals. Even amongst planarian flatworms, well-known for complete regeneration from tiny body fragments, some species have restricted regeneration abilities while others are almost entirely regeneration incompetent. Here, we assemble a diverse live collection of 40 planarian species to probe the evol...

Whole-mount in situ hybridization (WISH), colorimetric or fluorescent (FISH), allows for the visualization of endogenous RNA. For planarians, robust WISH protocols exist for small-sized animals (>5 mm) of the model species Schmidtea mediterranea and Dugesia japonica. However, the sexual strain of Schmidtea mediterranea studied for germline developm...

The planarian Girardia tigrina sensu lato is the most successful freshwater invasive triclad. While Antarctica remains a continent without reports for this species, the single African record is unreliable. Therefore, the species is still unknown on this continent despite the presence of adequate water masses for its occurrence. Here, we report the...

Why some animals can regenerate while many others cannot remains a fascinating question. Even amongst planarian flatworms, well-known for their ability to regenerate complete animals from small body fragments, species exist that have restricted regeneration abilities or are entirely regeneration incompetent. Towards the goal of probing the evolutio...

List of troglobia and stygobia species of the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands Abstract: The Iberian-Balearic hypogean or cave fauna has been highlighted for many years by numerous zoologists in different disciplines. Specialists of the different faunal groups capable of colonizing both the caves and the groundwater that runs through them. T...

Resumen: La fauna hipogea o cavernícola ibero-balear ha sido a lo largo de muchos años puesta en evidencia por numerosos zoólogos en las distintas disciplinas. Especialistas de los distintos grupos faunísticos capaces de colonizar tantos las cuevas como las aguas subterráneas que las recorren. Hoy sabemos que esta diversidad de troglobios y estigob...

Aim Species biogeography mainly focuses on palaeogeographical events, while environmental factors are generally overlooked despite their importance in species diversification. Here, we use an integrative approach to understand how palaeogeographical and environmental processes shape species distribution and focus on freshwater planarians as the mod...

Background: Predicted genetic consequences of asexuality include high intraindividual genetic diversity (i.e., the Meselson effect) and accumulation of deleterious mutations (i.e., Muller's Ratchet), among others. These consequences have been largely studied in parthenogenetic organisms, but studies on fissiparous species are scarce. Differing fro...

Planarians are a group of flatworms. Some planarian species have remarkable regenerative abilities, which involve abundant pluripotent adult stem cells. This makes these worms a powerful model system for understanding the molecular and evolutionary underpinnings of regeneration. By providing a succinct overview of planarian taxonomy, anatomy, avail...

Here we describe a new species for the genus Oregoniplana from the coast of China, representing the third species for the genus and the first record of this genus for Asia. The other species are known from Oregon, USA, and from South Africa. Specimens of the South African species, Oregoniplana pantherina, were recently rediscovered, forming the sec...

D. subtentaculata is a paradigmatic species for evolutionary studies. It groups four lineages, of which three are exclusively sexuals (2n). The other one has a broad distribution and shows different reproduction modes. Some populations of this lineage reproduce mostly by fission (3n and 4n), others are facultative (3n) and few of them are exclusive...

High-quality genomic DNA extraction is a starting point for many downstream applications in modern molecular biology. Here, we describe a simple method for isolating high molecular weight genomic DNA from planarians. The method is based on tissue lysis by a mixture of a chaotropic salt and detergent followed by organic extraction to remove proteins...

Planarians are on the rise as a model system for regeneration and stem cell dynamics. Almost in parallel the interest in planarian field biology has declined. Besides representing an independent research discipline in its own right, understanding of the natural habitat is also directly relevant to optimizing culture conditions in the laboratory. Mo...

An account is given of an unusual new species of freshwater planarian from the Hartz Mountains in Tasmania, Australia, Romankenkius flaccidus Sluys, sp. nov. The species is characterized, among other features, by an asymmetrical penis papilla, an extremely large, elongated copulatory bursa, and by the absence of testes in animals with fully develop...

Planarian flatworms are in the midst of a renaissance as a model system for regeneration and stem cells. Besides two well-studied model species, hundreds of species exist worldwide that present a fascinating diversity of regenerative abilities, tissue turnover rates, reproductive strategies and other life history traits. PlanMine (http://planmine.m...

Among the marine triclads or Maricola, the genus Pentacoelum represents one of the few exceptions in that species occur in brackish water or in freshwater. We examined specimens of a maricolan triclad that externally looked remarkably similar to the continental Spanish representatives of freshwater Pentacoelum hispaniense, albeit that these new sam...

First record of Oligochoerus limnophilus (Acoela, Acoelomorpha) from British waters.- We report the occurrence of the acoel Oligochoerus limnophilus (Acoelomorpha) from the British Islands, based on specimens captured in the river Thames (locally known as the river Isis) in Oxford, England, thereby considerably widening the distributional range of...

The paper presents an integrative taxonomic study on dugesiid freshwater flatworms from the north-eastern Mediterranean region by applying both morphological and molecular criteria in the formulation of stable species hypotheses. The morphological information obtained for the specimens was used in a traditional way by comparing the organismal trait...

Species capable of regenerating lost body parts occur throughout the animal kingdom, yet close relatives are often regeneration incompetent. Why in the face of 'survival of the fittest' some animals regenerate but others do not remains a fascinating question. Planarian flatworms are well known and studied for their ability to regenerate from minute...

The land planarian species Microplana terrestris (Müller, 1774), shows a wide distribution in the north of the Iberian Peninsula, where mature humid forests can be found. Since most terrestrial planarians require the presence and good condition of wet forests to survive, a parallel evolution of the taxon and its habitat might be expected. Performin...

Two new species of the genus Microplana are described from the Iberian Peninsula. The new taxa are compared with congeneric species. Distributional records for two other European species, Microplana monacensis (Heinzel, 1929) and Microplana groga Jones et al. 2008, are presented and the presence of Microplana terrestris (Müller, 1774) is confirmed...

Few studies have examined the diversity of freshwater planarians in the Iberian Peninsula and Greece. We have searched extensively for specimens, mainly in the Iberian Peninsula, and have gathered information on their taxonomy and biogeography. Two new species of Dendrocoelum and six new species of Phagocata are described. We also review the status...

Marine triclads are a relatively rare group of animals that, although found worldwide, have received little attention. However some of its species present some characteristics that can make them good models for developmental studies, namely this group presents the only gonochoristic species within the Tricladida. As for their taxonomy and phylogene...

Marine planarians were collected extensively from the Iberian Peninsula and Italy. As a result we provide new distributional records of six species of marine triclads, including the description of one new genus and species. The study increases substantially our knowledge of the distribution of this group of animals in Spain and reveals that even re...

On the basis of recently discovered new populations of the triclad flatworm Pentacoelum hispaniense new data are detailed on the ecology, reproduction, karyology, and anatomy of the species, including the first description of the external appearance of living specimens. Living animals show three refringent patches on the dorsal surface of which the...

Little is known about the taxonomy and distribution of terrestrial planarians on the Iberian Peninsula. Few studies have tried to investigate the local diversity of these animals, due to both their lack of economic interest and their low abun-dance. In this study we have made extensive searches and collections of terrestrial planarians from the Ibe...

Little is known about the taxonomy and distribution of terrestrial planarians on the Iberian Peninsula. Few studies have tried to investigate the local diversity of these animals, due to both their lack of economic interest and their low abundance. In this study we have made extensive searches and collections of terrestrial planarians from the Iber...

FIGURE 6. Microplana gadesensis. CRBA 443 - 444. Sagittal section through the head.

FIGURE 7. Microplana gadesensis. CRBA 443 - 444. A – B. Sagittal sections of the copulatory apparatus; anterior to the left.

FIGURE 1. Distributional records of autochthonous terrestrial planarians in the Iberian Peninsula. A. Iberian Peninsula excluding Catalonia. B. Catalonia. Numbers indicate the total number of localities in each area. Arrow points to the type locality of the three new species.

FIGURE 5. Microplana grazalemica. CRBA 438 - A 439. A. Sagittal reconstruction of the copulatory apparatus; anterior to the left. CRBA 440 - 442. B. Sagittal reconstruction of the copulatory apparatus; anterior to the left.

FIGURE 8. Microplana gadesensis. CRBA 443 - 444. A. Sagittal reconstruction of the copulatory apparatus; anterior to the left. CRBA 445. B. Sagittal reconstruction of the copulatory apparatus; anterior to the left.

FIGURE 2. Microplana aixandrei. Holotype. CRBA 435. A. Living animal. B. Sagittal section through the head. C. Sagittal section through front end. D – E. Sagittal sections of the copulatory apparatus; anterior to the left. F. Sagittal reconstruction of the copulatory apparatus; anterior to the left.

FIGURE 3. A. Diagrammatic transverse section through the pharynx of Microplana aixandrei showing the arrangement of the rows of longitudinal and circular muscles. B. Microplana grazalemica. Living animal. Scale bar 1 mm.

FIGURE 4. Microplana grazalemica. CRBA 438 - A 439. A – B. Sagittal sections of the copulatory apparatus; anterior to the left.

Presence of land planarians of the genus Microplana (Platyhelminthes, Tricladida, Terricola) in Montnegre-Corredor Park

En moltes espècies, la introducció de RNAs de doble cadena indueix un silenciament gènic molt específic i potent, anomenat interferència induïda per RNA. Aquest fenomen, basat en la degradació dirigida de mRNAs, es produeix en gairebé tots els eucariotes, des de tripanosomes a ratolins, incloent-hi fongs i plantes. Les seves possibles aplicacions e...