Transcriptome analysis reveals strain-specific and conserved stemness genes in Schmidtea mediterranea

The transcriptome of the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea is not well characterized. We have used RNA-Seq to characterize the transcriptome in both sexual and asexual strains of S. mediterranea from both untreated and irradiated animals. Moreover, we have performed RNA-Seq on RNA purified from FACS sorted neoblasts and differentiated cells. Together these studies expand our understanding of the planarian transcriptome and have identified strain-specific, neoblast-specific, and conserved transcripts. Overall design: RNA-Seq was performed on RNA isolated from untreated and irradiated S. mediterranea animals from both the sexual and asexual strains, on FACS purified X1 neoblasts, X2 neoblasts, and Xins differentiated cells.