Single-cell transcriptomics and RNAi screening define a hierarchical program of planarian eye regeneration.

M Lucila Scimone, Bryanna I Canales, Patrick Aoude, Kutay D Atabay, Cyrille W Teforlack, Peter W Reddien

Abstract read

In one paragraph

Article in Cell reports, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

0citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors.

M Lucila ScimoneHoward Hughes Medical Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.

Bryanna I CanalesWhitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

Patrick AoudeWhitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Department of Computational and Systems Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

Kutay D AtabayWhitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.

Cyrille W TeforlackDuke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA.

Peter W ReddienHoward Hughes Medical Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA; Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. Electronic address: reddien@wi.mit.edu.

Funding

Stem cell and regeneration regulatory mechanisms in planariansR35GM145345 · NIGMS · WHITEHEAD INSTITUTE FOR BIOMEDICAL RES · PI PETER REDDIEN · 2022 to 2026

$2.4M

NIGMS NIH HHS R35 GM145345

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The evolution and development of eyes are fundamental problems in biology, and numerous genetic and age-related degenerative eye diseases are still poorly understood. Planarians are flatworms that are able to fully regenerate functional eyes following injury, presenting a powerful model to study essential attributes of eye biology and regeneration. We performed single-cell eye transcriptomic analyses and large-scale RNA interference screening to define a hierarchical sequence of steps in eye regeneration and the genes that control each step in this process: from progenitor specification to differentiation into mature photoreceptors and melanin-pigmented optic cup cells, rhabdomere and dorsal projection formation in photoreceptors, eye morphogenesis (a self-organizing process where eyes trap progenitors and promote their differentiation), and interactions with the surrounding extracellular environment to produce a transparent region for light transmission. This hierarchical program defines roles for many conserved genes and establishes a framework for the regeneration of an entire organ.

Indexed as

CP: developmental biologyCP: genomicseyemorphogenesisoptic cupplanariaregenerationrhabdomeresspecificationstem cell

Identifiers

PMID41964952

DOI10.1016/j.celrep.2026.117245

PMCPMC13322009

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata

LicenceCC BY

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.