Fibrillarin homologs regulate translation in divergent cell lineages during planarian homeostasis and regeneration

Tissue homeostasis and regeneration involve complex cellular changes. The role of rRNA modification-dependent translational regulation in these processes remains largely unknown. Planarians, renowned for their ability to undergo remarkable tissue regeneration, provide an ideal model for the analysis of differential rRNA regulation in diverse cell types during tissue homeostasis and regeneration. We investigated the role of RNA 2’-O-methyltransferase, Fibrillarin (FBL), in the planarian Schmidtea mediterranea and identified two FBL homologs: Smed-fbl-1 (fbl-1) and Smed-fbl-2 (fbl-2). Both are essential for planarian regeneration, but play distinct roles: fbl-1 is crucial for progenitor cell differentiation, while fbl-2 is important for late-stage epidermal lineage specification. Different 2’-O-methylation patterns were observed upon fbl-1 and fbl-2 knockdown, suggesting their roles in translation of specific mRNA pools during regeneration. Ribo-seq analysis further revealed differing impacts of fbl-1 and fbl-2 knockdown on gene translation. These findings indicate divergent roles of the duplicate fbl genes in specific cell lineage development in planarians and suggest a role of rRNA modifications in translational regulation during tissue maintenance and regeneration.