Leiden University Scholarly Publications

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Nurhidayat, L. (2025)

Tail regeneration in the tokay gecko (Gekko gecko)

Doctoral Thesis
Regeneration is the ability of an organism to restore damaged or lost tissue with a functional replacement, and without scarring. Many lizards can regenerate their tails. They do this after ‘autotomy’ a process whereby the tail breaks off when seized by a predator. This thesis investigates tail regeneration in the tokay gecko (Gekko gecko). We find that tail regeneration in this species is not simply a re-run of embryonic development as it appears to be in salamanders and fish. Rather, the gecko relies more on the reactivation of resident stem cells, and not on creating new stem cells by dedifferentiation, as seen in other species. Tokay gecko tail regeneration also appears to leverage the existing positional memory of the resident stem cells to rebuild the lost structure. Interestingly, some phenomena in mammalian regeneration have also been found to depend on the activation of lineage-restricted stem cells. We believe that the gecko is an attractive model for translational...Show moreRegeneration is the ability of an organism to restore damaged or lost tissue with a functional replacement, and without scarring. Many lizards can regenerate their tails. They do this after ‘autotomy’ a process whereby the tail breaks off when seized by a predator. This thesis investigates tail regeneration in the tokay gecko (Gekko gecko). We find that tail regeneration in this species is not simply a re-run of embryonic development as it appears to be in salamanders and fish. Rather, the gecko relies more on the reactivation of resident stem cells, and not on creating new stem cells by dedifferentiation, as seen in other species. Tokay gecko tail regeneration also appears to leverage the existing positional memory of the resident stem cells to rebuild the lost structure. Interestingly, some phenomena in mammalian regeneration have also been found to depend on the activation of lineage-restricted stem cells. We believe that the gecko is an attractive model for translational research because it has important similarities with mammalian (including human) regeneration.
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Tokay Gecko
Tail regeneration
Blastema formation
Developmental patterning genes
Hox genes
All authors
Nurhidayat, L.
Supervisor
Richardson, M.K.; Spaink, H.P.
Committee
Meijer, A.H.; Drukker, M.; Verbeek, F.; Bakkers, J.; Benes, V.; Hamidy, A.
Qualification
Doctor (dr.)
Awarding Institution
Institute of Biology (IBL), Faculty of Science, Leiden University
Date
2025-01-09

Funding

Sponsorship
Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP)