Daniel Lennon BSC 2011L 13 March 2024 The Effect of Diet on Planarian Regeneration Regeneration is the process by which an organism naturally replaces or repairs damaged cells, tissues, and organs. Since regeneration is essential to their processes of development and repair, all living things actually possess some degree of regeneration ability (National Institute of General Medical Sciences 2023). The rate of regeneration in Girardia tigrina can be influenced by varying diets. Two distinct diets-an egg diet and a shrimp diet-were given to the G. tigrina after being cut into two pieces. Photos were taken to record their growth, which was subsequently evaluated using the ImageJ program, which helped in running t-tests for each sample. The mean values did not show any significant difference, according to the results of the t-tests. These findings suggested that neither eating shrimp nor eggs will speed up the organism's regeneration rate. Additional food factors, like a pattern similar to what the planaria would encounter in its natural habitat, could be incorporated into the experiment to explore this further.
Planeria Regeneration on Two Diets 7 6 5 4 Average Growth T 20 3 2 1 0 egg avg Diets shrimp avg Figure 1. Average growth after two weeks from population fed varying diets of either egg or shrimp with standard error bars. Shrimp diet: N=6; Egg yolk diet: N=6; (Error bar of +/- 1 Standard Deviation) Planarian fed eggs had a larger average growth and higher standard deviation. Planarian fed shrimp had a smaller average growth and a lower standard deviation. The regenerative potential of planaria has been the subject of much research in recent years; yet, little is known about the impact of certain diets on growth and regeneration. By examining the differences in planaria regeneration based on diets consisting of shrimp or egg yolks, this investigation attempts to close this gap. The hypothesis of this study was that there would be no significant difference between the effects of shrimp and eggs on the rate of regenerative development in either group. Through the manipulation of food as the independent variable and growth as the dependent variable, the average growth of planaria on a diet consisting of egg yolk and shrimp was observed in this study. Planaria were chosen in this study because of their affordable price, simplicity of manipulation and upkeep, and quick regeneration. The results, taken over the course of a three week period, indicate that there is not a significant difference between the regeneration of planaria fed either shrimp compared to those
fed eggs. These results support the hypothesis. The tiny sample size is probably the reason for the conclusion of the t-test that the mean value difference is not statistically significant. This lack of difference in growth among the two groups of planaria tests the study done by Chris Abel on nutrient density and growth of planaria (Abel C. et al.). By demonstrating that there was no statistically significant difference between the less nutritious shrimp and the nutrient-dense egg yolk on