In multicellular organisms, stem cells can recapitulate complete differentiation programs or sustain entire developmental processes. Elucidation of the molecular and physiological characteristics at the root of cell stemness is of paramount importance for the understanding of metazoan biology and numerous pathologies. Planarian neoblasts are particularly well suited for the study of cell stemness since they underlay the extraordinary regeneration processes observed in the animal. With the advent of increasingly powerful high-throughput gene expression approaches, very comprehensive gene collections can be analyzed. Using SAGE and massive parallel sequencing we have obtained transcriptomes from planarians with and without stem cells. Our aim is to have a repertory of the genes expressed in neoblasts to gain access to the genetic networks and metabolic pathways active in these cells, and contribute to reveal global stem cell features conserved across the species.

Web site **forthcoming**

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