Researchers have found a new technique which could help them in influencing cells of flatworms to manipulate them to grow other flatworm species’ brains and heads, according to a new study. The finding could prove that genetics do not exclusively control the physical growth.

Michael Levin, a researcher from the Tufts University Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology in the School of Arts and Sciences and one of the study authors, said it is believed that an organism’s shape is decided by chromatin’s structure and sequence, but the new study has proved that physiological network function is capable of superseding the anatomy.

“By modulating the connectivity of cells via electrical synapses, we were able to derive head morphology and brain patterning belonging to a completely different species from an animal with a normal genome”, Levin said in a press release.

In the study, the researchers included the Girardiadorotocephala, a species of dugesiidtriclad. In the regeneration process, they removed the subjects’ heads and stopped cell communication, and observed whether the subjects could grow other species heads.

Maya Emmons-Bell, biology student at Tufts, said the results showed that electrical connection between cells could be beneficial in regeneration. The findings could help in regenerative medicine. Adding to that, it may help researchers in better understand evolutionary biology, Maya added. According to the researcher, it was an amazing experience to work on the research.

The study has been published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.