Salamander Regeneration and Development: Cellular, Molecular, and Evolutionary Insights

Salamanders possess an extraordinary regenerative capacity among vertebrates, including the ability to restore complex structures such as limbs, tails, the spinal cord, the heart, skin, the retina, and parts of the central nervous system. These organisms therefore represent a unique experimental platform for uncovering fundamental principles of regeneration, tissue plasticity, developmental patterning, and evolutionary adaptation. In recent years, major advances in genomics, single-cell and spatial omics, lineage tracing, live imaging, genome editing, and comparative evolutionary approaches have made salamanders increasingly powerful systems for investigating the molecular and cellular basis of regeneration and development.This Research Topic welcomes contributions from participants in the Salamander Meeting 2026 in Mexico City, as well as from the broader international scientific community working on salamander biology, regeneration, development, and evolution, regardless of conference attendance. The Salamander Meeting 2026 will bring together leading researchers and emerging investigators in these areas, and this collection seeks to capture the interdisciplinary spirit of the meeting by highlighting emerging concepts, technological advances, and new perspectives shaping the field.This Research Topic provides a dedicated platform for cutting-edge contributions addressing the mechanisms that govern salamander regeneration and development across multiple biological scales. We particularly encourage studies exploring how developmental programs are reactivated during regeneration, how cells acquire regenerative competence, and how signaling networks coordinate tissue reconstruction, morphogenesis, and organ restoration. Contributions integrating developmental biology, stem cell biology, systems biology, evolutionary biology, regenerative medicine, and conservation biology are especially welcome.We invite original research articles, reviews, methods, perspectives, and hypothesis papers focused on, but not limited to, the following topics:• Cellular and molecular mechanisms of salamander regeneration • Blastema formation, dedifferentiation, and lineage plasticity • Stem and progenitor cell dynamics during regeneration and development • Positional information and tissue patterning mechanisms • Developmental signaling pathways controlling regeneration and morphogenesis • Epigenetic and transcriptional regulation of regenerative responses • Extracellular matrix remodeling and tissue microenvironment interactions • Immune regulation and inflammation during regeneration • Single-cell, spatial transcriptomic, proteomic, and multi-omic approaches • Comparative and evolutionary analyses of regenerative capacity • Neural regulation of regeneration and nerve-dependent signaling • Limb, spinal cord, retina, heart, and skin regeneration • Salamander embryogenesis, metamorphosis, and developmental programs • Functional genomics and genome editing technologies in salamander models • Ecological, evolutionary, and conservation perspectives in salamander biology • Translational implications for regenerative medicine and tissue engineering By connecting the scientific momentum generated by the Salamander Meeting 2026 with a dedicated publication platform, this Research Topic aims to strengthen the international salamander research community and promote interdisciplinary efforts to understand the fundamental principles of regeneration and development.Ultimately, this collection seeks to highlight salamanders as powerful vertebrate models with broad relevance to developmental biology, evolution, and regenerative medicine Topic editors: Jesus Chimal-Monroy, Jessica Cristina Marin-Llera Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/81519/salamander-regeneration-and-development-cellular-molecular-and-evolutionary-insights