Culturing Planarians in the Laboratory.

Planaria, particularly Schmidtea mediterranea and Dugesia japonica, are now established as research organisms in many laboratories across the life sciences community. Planarians are cheap and easy to keep in the lab. This chapter provides techniques and guidelines for establishing and maintaining a planarian colony. We provide sections on food preparation, housing, feeding, cleaning, culture expansion by amputation, and recognizing and responding to culture problems.