An in-vivo Study of Cell Redistribution Dynamics During Hydranth Regeneration and the Possible Dependence of Morphogenesis upon Initial Cell Division in Stem Segments of 'Tubularia'.

Colchicine was used to study initiating events in the regeneration of hydranths in the marine organism Tubularia. It has been shown that colchicine will reversibly arrest morphogenesis only if applied within approximately three hours after amputation. The concentration necessary to inhibit morphogenesis is high compared to levels used to inhibit cell division, so that the mechanism of inhibition may be related to DNA synthesis rather than mitosis. Further work is necessary to determine whether initial rounds of cell division are requisite for initiation of morphogenesis in Tubularia. The colchicine results are consistently reproducible and, therefore, represent an important phenomenon to be studied in connection with the basic mechanism of regeneration initiation.