affine on Nostr: >Also—and this is especially wild—genetically-different neoblast lineages can be ...

>Also—and this is especially wild—genetically-different neoblast lineages can be found in the same planarian body. Turns out the genes tend to mix it up at wound sites: neoblasts and non-neoblasts exchange genes during wound repair, which changes the gene frequencies (not to mention sharing any mutations which have turned up along the way), effectively forging new lineages. Further, asexual reproduction in planaria is a form of self-inflicted wounding: the worm literally rips itself in two, each piece subsequently regenerating into a whole worm. So neoblast lineages diverge, both during reproduction and repair. You end up with gangs of neoblasts—tribes, if you will—whose members are bound to each other by genetic similarity and put at competitive odds with less-similar neoblast populations living in the same body.

https://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=10007