#  Study Reveals Surprising Totipotency in Early Worm Embryos 

 





Amber Rock (PhD candidate in The Department of Organismic & Evolutionary Biology at Harvard) and her advisor Professor Mansi Srivastava (MCZ Curator in Invertebrate Zoology) were able to isolate and rearrange the cells of early stage embryos and found that the cells showed extraordinary flexibility – in some cases single cells grew into a full-grown worm. The research goes against previous assumptions that because individual cells at this stage have different roles, removing or rearranging them would prevent growth of a complete organism.



 

March 25, 2026

 

 

     ![developing three-banded panther worm embryo at 4-cell and 6-cell stages)](/sites/g/files/omnuum6431/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-03/H.%20miamia_2-4-6-8%20cell.png?h=27f1954a&itok=3iTZUGgi) 

A developing three-banded panther worm embryo at 4-cell and 6-cell stages, by Amber Rock



 



 

[Cut, paste, grow: Study reveals surprising totipotency in early worm embryos](https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1120623)

[Rock A, Srivastava M (2026) Totipotency and high plasticity in an embryo with an invariant, fate-specifying cleavage program. Current Biology 36:1410-1421.e4](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2026.02.014)



 

 

 



 

 See also:- [ Invertebrate Zoology ](/news/invertebrate-zoology)