Article Gap Junctional Blockade Stochastically Induces Different Species-Specific Head Anatomies in Genetically Wild-Type Girardia dorotocephala Flatworms Maya Emmons-Bell 1, Fallon Durant 1, Jennifer Hammelman 1, Nicholas Bessonov 2, Vitaly Volpert 3, Junji Morokuma 1, Kaylinnette Pinet 1, Dany S. Adams 1, Alexis Pietak 4, Daniel Lobo 5 and Michael Levin 1,* Received: 1 August 2015; Accepted: 10 November 2015; Published: 24 November 2015 Academic Editor: Francesc Cebrià 1 Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology and Department of Biology, Tufts University, 200 Boston Avenue, Suite 4600, Medford, MA 02155, USA;
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[email protected]; Tel.: +1-617-627-6161; Fax: +1-617-627-6121 Abstract: The shape of an animal body plan is constructed from protein components encoded by the genome. However, bioelectric networks composed of many cell types have their own intrinsic dynamics, and can drive distinct morphological outcomes during embryogenesis and regeneration. Planarian flatworms are a popular system for exploring body plan patterning due to their regenerative capacity, but despite considerable molecular information regarding stem cell differentiation and basic axial patterning, very little is known about how distinct head shapes are produced.