While in most animals, regeneration abilities decrease after development and with the onset of maturation and ageing, Capitella teleta, an annelid worm, gains regenerative ability with age. In their work, Elaine Seaver and Alicia Boyd show that metamorphosis might serve as a switch in annelid regenerative potential. To learn about their work, we spoke to the first author, Alicia Boyd, and the corresponding author, Elaine Seaver, Professor of Biology, Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience, University of Florida, USA.
A Sun, study studied this question.