By day 15, the worms had regrown a completely new neural tube, the researchers showed. How humans got a pharynx from ‘ugly beast’ acorn wormsĪfter three or four days, the worms start growing a proboscis and mouth, and five to 10 days after being cut the heart and kidneys reappear.

Imagine if you cut a person in half at the waist, the bottom half would grow a new head and the top half would grow new legs. The new study finds that when an acorn worm-one of the few living species of hemichordates-is cut in half, it regrows head or tail parts on each opposite end in perfect proportion to the existing half. “This could have implications for central nervous system regeneration in humans if we can figure out the mechanism the worms use to regenerate.” “We share thousands of genes with these animals, and we have many, if not all, of the same genes they are using to regenerate their body structures,” says lead author Shawn Luttrell, a doctoral student in biology at the University of Washington who’s based at Friday Harbor Laboratories. If scientists can unlock the genetic network responsible for this feat, they might be able to regrow limbs in humans through manipulating our own similar genetic heritage. Washington) Previous NextĪ new study of one of our closest invertebrate relatives, the acorn worm, suggests that humans might one day regrow amputated limbs or restore nervous system function after spinal cord injuries.Īcorn worms burrow in the sand around coral reefs, but their ancestral relationship to chordates means they have a genetic makeup and body plan surprisingly similar to ours.Ī study in the journal Developmental Dynamics shows that acorn worms can regrow every major body part-including the head, nervous system, and internal organs-from nothing after being sliced in half. The worm’s nervous system and organ functions are restored. A more developed head and neural tube have formed.

Acorn worm