ИСТИНА

Sponges are the earliest branching metazoans, and as such a key group for understanding of the evolutionary history of animal regeneration mechanisms. Sponges are known to possess remarkable reconstitutive and regenerative abilities. We investigated regeneration of Leucosolenia complicata, an abundant and broadly distributed in White Sea species. We have combined several microscopy techniques to study cellular mechanisms of reparative regeneration in this sponge. Wound healing followed by complete restoration of lost body parts have been observed. Epithelial morphogenesis, mainly spreading (flattening) and fusion of epithelial sheets was found to be the key morphogenetic process during regeneration for L. complicata. Transdifferentiation of choanocytes to pinacocytes accompanied the regeneration We demonstrate that regeneration in sponges involves a variety of processes utilized in other animals. Financial support by RFBR n° 16-04-00084, RSF n°17-14-01089 (for microscopy) and Labex OT-Med is gratefully acknowledged. How to cite: Ereskovsky A, Lavrov A and Bolshakov F. Reparative regeneration of White Sea sponge Leucosolenia complicata (Porifera, Calcarea): morphogenesis and cellular sources [version 1; not peer reviewed]. F1000Research 2017, 6:1882 (slides) (doi: 10.7490/f1000research.1115006.1)