Abstract

Abstract The ability to repair and regenerate tissues is an essential process for the survivability and development of the organisms. Amphibians excel on these processes and are invaluable models to study the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying scar free wound healing and tissue regeneration. Among these, we have used the frog, Xenopus, as an animal model to study the role of reactive oxygen species (ROS) during the early embryonic development and appendage regeneration. Both embryonic development and tissue repair/regeneration require cell proliferation, which relies on the synchronized mechanisms that regulate the cell cycle [1]. The mitochondrion is the powerhouse of the cell but it is also involved in other processes such as cellular signaling and calcium buffering. However, the roles of mtROS during early vertebrate development have remained largely unknown. For this reason, our main aim is to understand how the mitochondria, metabolism and ROS are regulated during early development and tissue regeneration. To achieve this goal we use a combination of biochemical, life-imaging and molecular biology techniques. In this sense, by using transgenic Xenopus frog embryos expressing the genetically encoded ROS indicator HyPer we have recently shown that mtROS is increased after fertilization and that it oscillates during each cell division [2]. These novel results highlight an entanglement between calcium, metabolism and ROS but further work is being conducted to understand how these processes are related to the cell cycle and its relevance for the early development and tissue regeneration. References: 1. Pomerening JR (2009) Positive feedback loops in cell cycle progression. FEBS Lett. 583(21):3388-3396. 2. Han Y., Ishibashi S., Iglesias-Gonzalez J, Chen Y, Love, NR, Amaya E. (2018). Ca2+-Induced Mitochondrial ROS Regulate the Early Embryonic Cell Cycle. Cell Reports 22:218-231.