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Researchers at the University of Vienna have discovered a key mechanism that enables sea anemones to regenerate into fully developed organisms from disorganized clusters of cells. The study, published in Nature Communications, shows that the so-called Notch signaling pathway controls tissue organization and the formation of the body axis.
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The findings provide new insights into the fundamental rules of biological self-organization and could help us better understand how tissues form, organize themselves and regenerate following disruption.
Animal development follows genetic programs that control the formation of cells, tissues and body structures. At the same time, these processes are often remarkably robust: at least some organisms can restore their ordered body organization even after significant disruptions. How this capacity for self-organization is controlled at the molecular level is still only partially understood.
The research team, led by Ulrich Technau from the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Vienna, which is part of the Vienna BioCenter, investigated how cell aggregates of the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis regenerate into complete organisms after being separated.
Despite their simple body structure, sea anemones possess numerous developmental genes and mechanisms also found in other animals. Among these evolutionarily conserved mechanisms is the Notch-Delta signaling pathway, a communication system between neighboring cells that was the focus of the study.
A single signaling pathway coordinates the formation of tissues and the body axis
When sea anemone cells are separated from one another and subsequently brought back together, a fully formed organism reemerges within a few days. In this process, the body axis and tissue layers are restored in their correct spatial arrangement—reproducibly and without the addition of growth factors.
Lead author Sanjay Narayanaswamy demonstrated that the Notch signaling pathway is crucial to this process. It ensures that cells sort themselves correctly and that different tissue types are distinguished from one another. If the signaling pathway is experimentally blocked, this organization no longer occurs. At the same time, Notch also controls the formation of the body axis.
Interaction between key developmental programs
Further experiments showed that the Notch signaling pathway works closely with the Wnt signaling pathway, which also plays a central role in axis formation and body development. The interaction of such networks enables biological systems to reestablish ordered structures even after significant disruption.
Relevance beyond the sea anemone
The ability of cells to organize themselves is fundamental to the formation and regeneration of tissues. Because Notch and Wnt signaling pathways are also present in many other animals and humans, the findings extend beyond the biology of the sea anemone.
"Our aim is to understand why cnidarians can use these molecular mechanisms to form complete organisms so efficiently through self-organization," says Technau. "We hope to be able to derive general principles of tissue organization and regeneration from this."
More information: Sanjay Narayanaswamy et al, Notch coordinates self-organization of germ layers and axial polarity in sea anemone gastruloids, Nature Communications (2026). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-74441-x
Provided by University of Vienna
This story was originally published on Phys.org.
