Flatworm Travels to Space With One Head, Comes Back With TwoBy Nathaniel Scharping | June 13, 2017 2:57 pm
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2017/06/13/flatworm-grows-head-space
The “double-headed worm from space.” Look for the googly eyes. (Credit: Junji Morokuma/Tufts University)Researchers have been sending animals to space for decades, and the growing roster includes everything from dogs and monkeys to scorpions and jellyfish. But a more recent animal space traveler returned to Earth with something never before seen: an extra head.
The newly bi-cranial creature is a flatworm of the species
Dugesia japonica, one of 15 flown above the International Space Station for five weeks by Tufts University researchers. The flatworms were cut in half before being launched to study their unique regenerative abilities. Severing a flatworm usually just results in two identical flatworms, but something appears to have gone awry in one individual, who returned with another head where his tail should have been.
Well Hello ThereThis behavior has been observed before in the species, but it’s exceedingly rare — the Tufts researchers say they’ve never seen it happen before, even after 18 years of working with a colony that now contains over 15,000 flatworms. Even more intriguing, the mutant flatworm kept on making two-headed copies of itself as it further divided, indicating that it wasn’t a freak mutation but a true change in the invertebrates’ physiological makeup.
The 14 other flatworms that experienced the unique stresses of outer space experienced fundamental changes as well, although none so noticeable. The researchers observed them for 20 months after their return and found changes in their behavior when exposed to light and in the content of their microbiomes as compared to control flatworms kept on Earth.
Growing in Space is WeirdIn a
paper published Tuesday in the journal
Regeneration, the researchers propose that the absence of both gravitational and magnetic fields in space could have something to do with the dramatic transformation. Previous research into flatworms has indicated that Earth’s magnetic field influences how the basic structure of their cells grows, and the microgravity aboard the ISS could be affecting everything from gene expression to how ion channels within their bodies communicate. These effects likely extend beyond flatworms as well, making research into their space travel side effects highly informative for future human missions.
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http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2017/06/13/flatworm-grows-head-space
