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Fig. 1 Early-stage gar regenerative blastema transition into a pro-inflammatory state with elevated cGAS activity. (a) Spotted gar caudal fins were amputated and regeneration was observed over a 32-day period, with regenerative blastema being collected at the indicated timepoints for molecular analysis. Scale bar indicates 1 cm. (b) Interferons and Interleukins are upregulated in blastema at 7 dpa before returning to baseline levels (n = 3). Gene expression of ifnb, ifnc1, il6 (Interleukin 6), and il8 (Interleukin 8-like) was assessed and significantly different from the original amputated fin (AF) only a 7 dpa. (c) 2′3′- cGAMP levels are elevated specifically at 7 dpa in regenerative blastema. 2′3′-cGAMP concentrations were determined from the same caudal fins used for RNA isolation. (d) Gene expression analysis of cGAS-STING pathway orthologs in gar indicate that pml is downregulated to facilitate immune signaling via the cGAS-STING axis. Variation between groups was assessed with a one-way ANOVA, with Tukey′s post hoc analysis for pairwise comparison between groups. ****p < 0.0001.