Museum of Science, Boston

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July 01, 2009

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Regeneration is a common phenomenon among plants and animals — including salamanders, who have the ability to regenerate a complete limb after an amputation injury. However, detailed explanations have been elusive, in part because differentiating the regenerating cells is difficult. Watch this videocast to learn how some scientists are using cells from florescent salamanders to "see" how the cells work.

Reference: "Cells keep a memory of their tissue origin during axolotl limb regeneration," Martin Kragl, Dunja Knapp, Eugen Nacu, Shahryar Khattak, Malcolm Maden, Hans Henning Epperlein, and Elly M. Tanaka, Nature vol. 460, July 2, 2009, pp 60 - 67.