Immunolocalization of lix1 in the regenerating tail of lizard indicates that the protein is mainly present in the nervous tissue

Purpose

Lizard regeneration derives from the re-activation of a number of developmental genes after tail amputation. Among genes with the highest expression, as indicated from the transcriptome, is lix1 which functional role is not known.

Method

An antibody that cross-reacts with the lizard Podarcis muralis lix1 has been utilized to detect by immunofluorescence the sites of localization of the protein in the regenerating tail.

Results

Lix1-protein is almost exclusively localized in the regenerating spinal cord (ependyma) and nerves growing into the blastema, in sparse blastema cells but is undetectable in other tissues.

Conclusions

Since the spinal cord is essential to stimulate tail regeneration it is hypothesized that the lix1 protein is part of the signaling or growing factors produced from the regenerating spinal cord that are needed for tail regeneration of the lizard tail.