ASCIDIAN NEWS*
Gretchen and Charles Lambert
206-365-3734
glambert@fullerton.edu or clambert@fullerton.edu
home page: http://depts.washington.edu/ascidian/
Number 58 December 2005
We spent part of
the summer in
This AN includes 118 new publications on the Tunicata! Keep up the good work and to assure that your new publications will appear in AN please don’t forget to send us hard copy reprints (preferred especially if they contain color figs as we do not have a color printer) or PDFs; thank you.
*Ascidian
News is not part of the scientific literature and should not be cited as such.
1. First announcement
of 2007 Tunicata meeting From Christian
Sardet, Station Zoologique,
Observatoire, CNRS, Univ PM
Curie, Villefranche sur Mer 06230, France christian.sardet@obs-vlfr.fr
As discussed at
We found a suitable site to organize a 4 day meeting (arriving Saturday, leaving Wednesday) at the Residence Delcloy in St Jean Cap Ferrat and hope to keep the expenses to below 400 Euros (about 450 actual US Dollars, including room, full board and meals, registration). You can see the meeting place: http://biodev.obs-vlfr.fr/recherche/biomarcell/films%2Bimages/ResidenceDlcloy.html
and a Map of the area: http://biodev.obs-vlfr.fr/recherche/biomarcell/images/R%E9sidence%20DELCLOY/MapResidenseDelcloy.jpg
To plan ahead and firmly reserve the place it would be helpful if you fill out the questionnaire below
1) WOULD YOU PARTICIPATE AND PRESENT YOUR WORK.
2) WHEN WOULD YOU PREFER THE MEETING TO BE HELD: Last week of June? Early October?
3) HOW MANY LAB MEMBERS WOULD YOU BRING?
4) WOULD YOU COME ACCOMPANIED (SPOUSE, CHILDREN?)
5) COMPARED WITH 2003/2004 EDITIONS IN MARSEILLE AND 2005
EDITION IN
Please visit the Sardet lab website for downloadable PDFs of new publications and posters, and the BioClips site http://www.bioclips.com/ showing 40 multimedia documents highlighted by Science NetWatch containing several documents dealing with research on ascidians.
http://biodev.obs-vlfr.fr/recherche/biomarcell/
2.
From Dr. Gabriel Gorsky:
New book: Response of Marine Ecosystems to Global Change—Ecological Impact
of Appendicularians. Edited by G. Gorsky, M. J. Youngbluth and D. Deibel. “Almost everything you wanted to know
about appendicularians but were afraid to ask is discussed in this book or in
the references herein. Although these free swimming tunicates are the most
primitive chordates, having the smallest chordate genome known, they developed
one of the most complex external food concentrating mucous structure and using
tangential filtration they feed efficiently on sub-micron and micron sized
particles. The nearly 70 known species are adapted to all the oceanic
environments including the deep sea and make a significant contribution to what
is called
marine
snow: slowly sedimenting marine particles and thus to
the carbon cycling. Chapter after chapter reviews the latest findings in the
fields of phylogenetics, diversity, reproduction,
nutritional biology, population dynamics, carbon flux
and predator-prey relationships.” (quoted from the publisher)
CONTACT
LIBRAIRIE PHILOSOPHIQUE J.VRIN contact@vrin.fr
6,
PLACE DE LA SORBONNE, 75005
TEL: +33 (0)1 43 54 03 47 — FAX: +33 (0)1 43 54 48 18
3.
Check out the fabulous newly-released GUIDE
TO EXOTIC SPECIES for San Francisco Bay, created by Dr. Andrew Cohen (acohen@sfei.org) of the San Francisco Estuary Institute. http://www.exoticsguide.org We
have added a link to it on the Ascidian News homepage. It was highlighted in SCIENCE
Vol. 309
Only 4 ascidian species are covered at this point: Botrylloides violaceus, Botryllus schlosseri, Didemnum sp. A and Styela clava: excellent photos and well written descriptions are included for all of them.
4. There have been a number of
interesting email exchanges on edible
ascidians lately on the Tunicata listserv; you can go to the website and
click on the Archives and then on November and December 2005. There you will
find a few recipes, photos of ascidians for sale at markets in various
countries, and websites with photos and descriptions of methods of culturing
ascidians. Click on November and December 2005 to get a list of the emails.
Click on the email title to open it (black underlined lettering). The larger
size emails contain photos. Tito Lotufo sent in an
interesting Chilean recipe for mussel and Pyura stew (Nov. 30). The
email from Shota Chiba on 29 November contains a
website on culturing Halocynthia roretzi
in
Shogo
Kajiwara (3 December email) made a website on
culturing H. roretzi in
If you have not yet joined the Tunicata email discussion forum, it is easy to do so at http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/tunicata.html though you do not need to join in order to view the emails.
1. Offspring size effects mediate competitive interactions in a colonial marine invertebrate. Dustin J. Marshall, Carly N. Cook and Richard B. Emlet. Ecology in press.
Abstract: Over the past 30 years, numerous
attempts to understand the relationship between offspring size and fitness have
been made, and it has become clear that this critical relationship is strongly
affected by environmental heterogeneity. For marine invertebrates, there has
been a long standing interest in the evolution of offspring size, but there
have been very few empirical and theoretical examinations of post-metamorphic
offspring size effects and almost none have considered the effect of
environmental heterogeneity on the offspring size/fitness relationship.We
investigated the post-metamorphic effects of offspring size in the field for
the colonial marine invertebrate Botrylloides violaceus. We also
examined how the relationship between offspring size and performance was
affected by three different types of intraspecific
competition. We found strong and persistent effects of offspring size on
survival and growth but these effects depended on the level and type of intraspecific competition. Generally, competition
strengthened the advantages of increasing maternal investment. Interestingly,
we found that offspring size determined the outcome of competitive interaction:
juveniles that had more maternal investment were more likely to encroach on
another juvenile’s territory. This suggests that mothers have the previously unrecognized
potential to influence the outcome of competitive interactions in benthic marine
invertebrates. We created a simple optimality model, which utilized the data
generated from our field experiments and found that increasing intraspecific competition resulted in an increase in
predicted optimal size. Our results suggest that the relationship between
offspring size and fitness is highly variable in the marine environment and
strongly dependent on the density of conspecifics.
2. Ca2+ and Na+ current patterns during oocyte maturation,
fertilization and early developmental stages of Ciona intestinalis. Annunziata Cuomo,
Francesco Silvestre, Rosaria De
Santis, Elisabetta Tosti. tosti@szn.it Laboratory of Cell Biology,
ABSTRACT: Using
the whole-cell voltage clamp technique, the electrical changes in oocyte and
embryo plasma membrane were followed during different meiotic and developmental
stages in Ciona intestinalis. We show, for the first
time, an electrophysiological characterization of the plasma membrane in oocytes at the
germinal vesicle (GV) stage with high L-type calcium (Ca2+) current
activity that decreased through meiosis. Moreover, the absence of Ca2+ reduced germinal vesicle breakdown
(GVBD), which is consistent with a role of Ca2+ currents in the prophase/metaphase
transition. In mature oocytes at the
metaphase I (MI) stage, Ca2+ currents decreased and then disappeared
and sodium (Na+) currents first appeared remaining high up to the
zygote stage. Intracellular Ca2+
release was higher in MI than in GV, indicating that Ca2+ currents in GV may contribute
to fill the stores which are essential for oocyte contraction at fertilization.
The fertilization current generated in
Na+ free sea water was significantly lower than the control;
furthermore, oocytes fertilized in the absence of Na+ showed high
development of anomalous “rosette”
embryos. Current amplitudes
became negligible in embryos at the 2- and 4-cell stage, suggesting that
signalling pathways that mediate first cleavage do not rely on ion current
activities. At the 8-cell stage embryo, a resumption of Na+ current activity and
conductance occurred, without a correlation with specific blastomeres. Taken
together, these results imply: i) an involvement of
L-type Ca2+
currents in meiotic
progression from the GV to MI stage; ii)
a role of Na+
currents during electrical events at fertilization and subsequent development;
iii) a major role of plasma membrane
permeability and a minor function of specific currents during initial cell line
segregation events.
[Unfortunately the
list of participants and abstracts are not available for the 3rd Intl. Tunicate
Conference that was held in
1. Ninth SCAR Intl. Biology
Symposium 25-31 July, 2005,
Benthic
tunicates (Urochordata) from
2 Society for Developmental Biology Meetings,
Nodal Signaling and
the Evolution of Deuterostome Gastrulation. Helen K. Chea and Billie J. Swalla, Dept. of Biology,
Deuterostomes are animals in which the blastopore becomes the anus and the mouth forms secondarily in another location during embryonic development. The evolution of gastrulation within the deuterostomes has allowed for the formation of the various developmental and morphological differences seen in larval and adult deuterostomes today. Although gastrulation is an amazingly complicated developmental process, involving wide-scale cell movements and signaling mechanisms, there are some common mechanisms that are beginning to emerge. An important signaling pathway involved in regulating gastrulation is that of nodal. Nodal is a member of the transforming growth factor-ъ (TGF-ъ) superfamily of signaling molecules, and it plays a regulatory role in cell interactions that are responsible for patterning the early embryo. Nodal was initially discovered in vertebrates, but has also been found in invertebrate chordates and, most recently, in non-chordate deuterostomes. We examine nodal expression in each of the vertebrate model systems, then compare them to the invertebrate deuterostomes. When Nodal expression within the deuterostomes is examined, several conserved features emerge. We have also conducted experiments to determine when and where Nodal is expressed throughout tunicate development, in order to understand how Nodal signaling has evolved in the chordates. Nodal is expressed early during gastrulation and later to specify left-right asymmetry in chordates, but the ancestral role of Nodal may have been in positioning the mouth during larval and/or adult development.
3. Intl. Meeting of the Latin American Society for Dev. Biol.,
The germline in metazoans is specified either immediately after fertilization by maternal determinants, or by a pluripotent stem cell lineage set aside later in development. The solitary ascidian Ciona intestinalis segregates a germline that becomes localized in the endodermal strand cells of the tail at the tadpole stage. Paradoxically, experimental studies of tail ablation, which deleted germ line cells, have been reported to generate new germ cells. I have compared the expression of Ciona vasa, a DEAD box RNA helicase found in germ cells across the metazoans, to the localization of vasain the solitary ascidian Boltenia villosa, and to the expression in adult colonies of the ascidian Botrylloides violaceus. In the solitary ascidian B. villosa, in situ hybridization studies have shown strong expression of vasa in the small germ cells of the adult gonad. Boltenia vasa mRNA is strongly expressed in the cytoplasm and nuclei of small oocytes in the gonad and expression decreases qualitatively in larger oocytes, where it is observed within and around the germinal vesicle. During gastrulation, vasa expression was restricted to a few posterior cells of the embryo, similar to Ciona. Preliminary data using a fly vasa polyclonal antibody to identify germ cells, suggests a putative second population of Primordial Germ Cells (PGCs) in the head of the larval tadpole of the solitary ascidian Boltenia villosa. At least three different mechanisms can be proposed to explain the repopulation of PGCs in tail-ablated solitary ascidians: 1) a pluripotent stem cell lineage is present in solitary ascidians that can give rise to new PGCs; 2) a dedifferentiation process of somatic stem cells can occur to give rise to new PGCs; and 3) an alternative source of germ line stem cells is present in the tadpole head. In the colonial ascidan B. violaceus, in situ hybridization of adult colonies revealed mRNA expression in presumptive gonads of budding zooids, and in certain isolated cells in the differentiating zooid. The timing of specification of the germline in colonial ascidians and the functionality of these vasapositive cells in adult colonies remain unknown.
4. 3rd Intl. Tunicata
Conference,
Activation of ascidian oocyte
maturation: Effects of various enzyme agonists and antagonists on germinal
vesicle breakdown.
Charles C. Lambert,
Previous work on
the onset of oocyte maturation (germinal vesicle breakdown, GVBD) in ascidians had been investigated in Halocynthia
roretzi (Pyuridae), in which GVBD commences shortly after the oocyte is
removed from the ovary and suspended in SW. The signaling pathways involved in
GVBD remain unknown. Herdmania
pallida (Pyuridae) functions like H. roretzi;
GVBD occurs on contact with seawater. Oocytes of Cnemidocarpa irene (Styelidae) do not
spontaneously undergo GVBD in SW but may be activated by external agents. [Dev.
Growth & Differ. 47:265-272, 2005]. Herdmania,
Boltenia, Pyura and Styela oocytes are all activated by contact with
SW but inhibited from GVBD by pH 4 SW. They can subsequently be activated by mastoparan (G-protein activator), A23187 (Ca2+ ionophore) or dimethylbenzanthracene
(tyrosine kinase activator). These same reagents
induce GVBD in pH 8 Cnemidocarpa irene
oocytes. This requires maturation promoting factor (MPF) activity; cyclin-dependent kinase
inhibitors roscovitine and olomoucine
are inhibitory to Herdmania and Cnemidocarpa
maturation. The activation process
appears to involve an increase in intracellular cAMP
levels as permeant 8-bromo cAMP
activated GVBD at 4 mM in a dose dependent manner. Forskolin, an activator of adenylyl
cyclase, induced GVBD at micromolar
concentrations. Phosphodiesterase inhibitors such as theophylline caused GVBD with a maximal response at 0.5 µm;
caffeine, hypoxanthine and isobutyl methylxanthine
also caused GVBD at low concentrations. These studies strongly implicate
increased intracellular cAMP levels in GVBD of
ascidian oocytes as is the case in hydrozoans, ophiuroids
and nemerteans. This is an unusual finding, as cAMP
inhibits GVBD in most other deuterostomes including vertebrates and asteroids.
Studies are now underway to measure cAMP levels
within the oocyte during maturation.
Anon. 2005. Ascidians
(Tunicata, Ascidiacea) from the Arvoredo
Marine Biological Reserve,
Azumi, K., Sasaki, T., Okochi,
K., Yamasaki, S., Saito, T., Takayama, H. and Yokosawa, H. 2005. Differential display analysis reveals
the expression of glutathione S-transferase omega and
novel genes through an ITAM-containing receptor in ascidian immunocytes.
Immunogenetics 57: 444-452.
Ballarin, L. and Cima, F. 2005. Cytochemical properties of Botryllus
schlosseri haemocytes:
indications for morpho-functional characterisation.
Eur. J. Biochem. 49:
255-264.
Ban, S., Harada, Y., Yokosawa, H. and Sawada, H. 2005. Highly polymorphic
vitelline-coat protein HaVC80 from the ascidian, Halocynthia aurantium:
Structural analysis and involvement in self/nonself recognition during
fertilization. Dev. Biol. 286: 440-451.
Bassham, S. and Postlethwait, J.
2005. The evolutionary history of placodes: a
molecular genetic investigation of the larvacean
urochordate Oikopleura dioica. Development online
24 August: 4259-4272.
Brena, C., Cima, F., Martinucci, G. and Burighel, P.
2005. The appendicularian alimentary tract: a comparative study. In: Gorsky, G., Youngbluth, M. J. and
Deibel, D. (ed.), Response of Marine Ecosystems to
Global Change: Ecological Impact of Appendicularians.
Cañestro, C., Bassham, S. and Postlethwait, J. 2005. Development of the central nervous
system in the larvacean Oikopleura dioica and the evolution of the chordate brain.
Dev. Biol. 285: 298 – 315.
Chavanich, S., Koeysin, P., Viyakarn, V., Piyatiratitivorakul,
S., Menasveta, P., Suwanborirux,
K. and Poovachiranon, S. 2005. A tunicate from a Thai
coral reef: a potential source of new anticancer compounds. Coral Reefs epub 24
October:
Chea, H. K., Wright, C. V. and Swalla, B. J. 2005. Nodal
signaling and the evolution of deuterostome gastrulation. Dev. Dyn. 234: 269–278.
Cima, F., Ballarin, L., Gasparini, F. and Burighel, P.
2005. External amebocytes guard the pharynx entry in
a tunicate (Ascidiacea). Dev. Comp. Immunol.; Epub. advance
publication.
Cima, F., Brena, C., Martinucci, G. and Burighel, P.
2005. Gut histochemistry in Oikopleura dioica.
In: Gorsky, G., Youngbluth,
M. J. and Deibel, D. (ed.), Response of Marine
Ecosystems to Global Change: Ecological Impact of Appendicularians.
Cohen, A. N., Harris,
L. H., Bingham, B. L., Carlton, J. T., Chapman, J. W., Lambert, C. C., Lambert,
G., Ljubenkov, J. C., Murray, S. N., Rao, L. C., Reardon, K. and Schwindt,
E. 2005. Rapid Assessment Survey for exotic organisms in southern
da Rocha, R. M. and Barros de Faria, S. 2005. Ascidians at
da Rocha, R. M.,
Davidson, B., Shi, W.
and Levine, M. 2005. Uncoupling heart cell specification and migration in the
simple chordate Ciona intestinalis. Development 132: 4811-4818.
Di Bella, M. A., Carbone, M.
C. and De Leo, G. 2005. Aspects of cell production in mantle tissue of Ciona
intestinalis L. (Tunicata, Ascidiacea). Micron 36:
477-481.
Dias, G.,
Dupont, L., Viard, F. and Bishop, J. D. D. 2005. Isolation and
characterization of twelve polymorphic microsatellite
markers for the invasive ascidian Styela clava (Tunicata). Molec. Ecol. Notes
Edvardsen, R. B., Seo, H. C., Jensen,
M. F., Mialon, A., Mikhaleva,
J., Bjordal, M., Cartry, J.,
Reinhardt, R., Weissenbach, J., Wincker,
P. and Chourrout, D. 2005. Remodelling
of the homeobox gene complement in the tunicate Oikopleura
dioica. Curr. Biol. 15: 12-13.
Erk, M., Ruus, A., Ingebrigtsen, K. and Hylland, K. 2005. Cadmium accumulation and Cd-binding
proteins in marine invertebrates-A radiotracer study. Chemosphere 61:
1651-1664.
Ewan, R., Huxley-Jones, J., Mould, A. P., Humphries, M.
J., Robertson, D. L. and Boot-Handford, R. P. 2005.
The integrins of the urochordate Ciona
intestinalis provide novel insights into the molecular evolution of the
vertebrate integrin family. BMC Evol.
Biol. 5: 31.
Geraci, F. and Giudice, G. 2005.
Mechanisms of Ca2+ liberation at fertilization. Biochem.
Biophys. Res. Comm. 335: 265-269.
Gould, R. M.,
Morrison, H. G., Gilland, E. and Campbell, R. K.
2005. Myelin tetraspan family proteins but no non-tetraspan family proteins are present in the ascidian (Ciona
intestinalis) genome. Biol. Bull. 209: 49-66.
Hamada, M., Wada, S.,
Kobayashi, K. and Satoh, N. 2005. Ci-Rga, a gene
encoding an MtN3/saliva family transmembrane protein, is essential for tissue
differentiation during embryogenesis of the ascidian Ciona intestinalis.
Differentiation 73: 364-376.
Horie, T., Orii, H. and Nakagawa,
M. 2005. Structure of ocellus photoreceptors in the ascidian Ciona
intestinalis larva as revealed by an anti-arrestin
antibody. J. Neurobiol. 65: 241-250.
Hughes, A. L. and
Friedman, R. 2005. Loss of ancestral genes in the genomic evolution of Ciona
intestinalis. Evol. & Dev. 7: 196-200.
Hughes, D. J. and al.,
e. 2005. Biofiltration and biofouling
on artificial structures in
Hughes, R. N. 2005.
Lessons in modularity: the evolutionary ecology of colonial invertebrates. Sci. Mar. 69: 169-179.
Huhtala, M., Heino, J., Casciari, D., de Luise, A. and
Johnson, M. S. 2005. Integrin evolution: insights
from ascidian and teleost fish genomes. Matrix Biol. 24:
83-95.
Huxley-Jones, J., Apte, S. S. and Robertson, D. L. 2005. The characterisation of six ADAMTS proteases in the basal
chordate Ciona intestinalis provides new insights into the vertebrate
ADAMTS family. Int. J. Biochem. Cell Biol. 37:
1838-1845.
Inoue, Y., Ogasawara,
M., Moroi, T., Satake, M., Azumi, K., Moritomo, T. and
Nakanishi, T. 2005. Characteristics of NADPH oxidase
genes (Nox2, p22, p47, and p67) and Nox4 gene expressed in blood cells of
juvenile Ciona intestinalis. Immunogenetics 57:
520-34.
Ishibashi, T., Usami, T., Fujie, M., Azumi, K., Satoh, N.
and Fujiwara, S. 2005. Oligonucleotide-based microarray analysis of retinoic acid target genes in the
protochordate, Ciona intestinalis. Dev. Dyn. 233:
1571-1578.
Jiang, D. and Smith, W. C. 2005. Self- and
cross-fertilization in the solitary ascidian Ciona savignyi. Biol. Bull.
209: 107-112.
Johnson, D. S., Zhou,
Q., Yagi, K., Satoh, N., Wong, W. and Sidow, A. 2005. De novo discovery of a tissue-specific gene
regulatory module in a chordate. Genome Res. 15: 1315-1324.
Khalturin, K., Kurn, U., Pinnow, N. and Bosch, T. C. 2005. Towards a molecular code
for individuality in the absence of MHC: screening for individually variable
genes in the urochordate Ciona intestinalis. Dev. Comp. Immunol. 29: 759-773.
Kobayashi, Y., Ohashi, M., Kawamura, K., Yubisui,
T. and Fujiwara, S. 2005. An ascidian homologue of the gonadotropin-releasing
hormone receptor is a retinoic acid target gene. Comp. Biochem.
Physiol. B Biochem. Mol.
Biol. 141: 274-280.
Kott, P. 2005. New and little-known species of Didemnidae
(Ascidiacea, Tunicata) from
Kourakis, M. J. and Smith, W. C. 2005. Did the first chordates
organize without the organizer? Trends Genet. 21: 506-510.
Laird, D. J., Chang,
W. T., Weissman,
Lambert, G., Faulkes, Z., Lambert, C. C. and Scofield,
V. L. 2005. Ascidians of South Padre Island, Texas, with a key to species.
Lapidot, Z. and Rinkevich, B. 2005.
Development of panel of monoclonal antibodies specific to urochordate cell
surface antigens. Mar. Biotechnol. 7: 532-539.
Lapidot, Z. and Rinkevich, B. 2005.
Development of monoclonal antibodies specific to urochordate intracellular epitopes. Cell Biol. Intl. epub
advance publication
Lievens, S. C. and Molinski, T. F.
2005. Sagittamides A and B. Polyacetoxy
long-chain acyl amino acids from a didemnid ascidian.
Org. Lett. 7: 2281-2284.
Liu, H. W., Fujiwara,
T. and Nishikawa, T. 2005. Lissoclibadins 1-3, three
new polysulfur alkaloids, from the ascidian Lissoclinum cf. badium.
Tetrahedron 61: 8611-8615.
Lombard, F., Sciandra, A. and Gorsky, G. 2005.
Influence of body mass, food concentration, temperature and filtering activity
on the oxygen uptake of the appendicularian Oikopleura dioica.
Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 301: 149-158.
Long, P. F., Dunlap,
W. C., Battershill, C. N. and Jaspars,
M. 2005. Shotgun cloning and heterologous expression
of the patellamide gene cluster as a strategy to
achieving sustained metabolite production. ChemBioChem
6: 1760 – 1765.
López-Legentil, S., Dieckmann, R., Bontemps-Subielos, N., Turon, X.
and Banaigs, B. 2005. Qualitative variation of
alkaloids in color morphs of Cystodytes (Ascidiacea). Biochem. Syst. & Ecol. 33: 1107-1119.
López-Legentil, S., Ruchty, M., Domenech, A. and Turon, X. 2005.
Life cycles and growth rates of two morphotypes of Cystodytes (Ascidiacea) in
the western
Manni, L., Agnoletto, A., Zaniolo, G. and Burighel, P.
2005. Stomodeal and neurohypophysial
placodes in Ciona intestinalis: insights into
the origin of the pituitary gland. J. Exp. Zool. B:
Mol. Dev. Evol. 304B: 324–339.
Marchenkov, A. and Boxshall, G. A.
2005. Three new species of Enterocola van Beneden, 1860 (Crustacea: Copepoda: Cyclopoida) from
ascidian hosts. Syst. Parasitol.
61: 223-233.
Marshall, D. J., Cook,
C. N. and Emlet, R. B. 2006. Offspring size effects
mediate competitive interactions in a colonial marine invertebrate. Ecology 87:
246-257.
Martinucci, G., Brena, C., Cima, F. and Burighel, P. 2005.
Synchronous spermatogenesis in appendicularians. In: Gorsky,
G., Youngbluth, M. J. and Deibel,
D. (ed.), Response of Marine Ecosystems to Global Change: Ecological Impact of
Appendicularians.
Matias,
Mazet, F., Hutt, J. A., Milloz, J., Millard, J., Graham, A. and Shimeld,
S. M. 2005. Molecular evidence from Ciona intestinalis for the
evolutionary origin of vertebrate sensory placodes.
Dev. Biol. 282: 494-508.
Mazet, F. and Shimeld, S. M.
2005. Molecular evidence from ascidians for the evolutionary origin of
vertebrate cranial sensory placodes. J. Exp. Zool. B: Mol. Dev. Evol. 304:
340-346.
Menin, A., Favero, M., Cima, F. and Ballarin, L. 2005.
Release of phagocytosis-stimulating factor(s) by morula cells in a colonial ascidian. Mar. Biol. epub:
Moret, F., Christiaen, L., Deyts, C., Blin, M., Joly, J. S. and Vernier, P. 2005.
The dopamine-synthesizing cells in the swimming larva of the tunicate Ciona
intestinalis are located only in the hypothalamus-related domain of the
sensory vesicle. Eur. J. Neurosci.
21: 3043-3055.
Murata, Y., Iwasaki,
H., Sasaki, M., Inaba, K. and Okamura, Y. 2005. Phosphoinositide phosphatase activity coupled to an
intrinsic voltage sensor. Nature 435: 1239-1243.
Nakamura, Y., Makabe, K. W. and Nishida, H. 2005. POPK-1/Sad-1 kinase is required for the proper translocation of maternal
mRNAs and putative germ plasm at the posterior pole
of the ascidian embryo. Development 132: 4731-4742.
Nakaya, F., Saito, Y. and Motokawa,
T. 2005. Experimental allometry: effect of size
manipulation on metabolic rate of colonial ascidians. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B Biol. Sci. 272:
1963-1969.
Nishida, H. 2005.
Specification of embryonic axis and mosaic development in ascidians. Dev. Dyn. 233: 1177–1193.
Ogasawara, M., Satoh,
N., Shimada, Y., Wang, Z., Tanaka, T. and Noji, S.
2005. Rapid and stable buffer exchange system using InSitu
Chip suitable for multicolor and large-scale whole-mount analyses. Dev. Genes
& Evol. Epub
advance publication pp. 1-5.
Okamura, Y., Nishino,
A., Murata, Y., Nakajo, K., Iwasaki, H., Ohtsuka, Y., Tanaka-Kunishima,
M., Takahashi, N., Hara, Y., Yoshida, T., Nishida, M., Okado,
H., Watari, H., Meinertzhagen,
I. A., Satoh, N., Takahashi, K., Satou, Y., Okada, Y.
and Mori, Y. 2005. Comprehensive analysis of the ascidian genome reveals novel
insights into the molecular evolution of ion channel genes. Physiol.
Genomics 22: 269-282.
Ooishi, S. 2005. Haplostomides
hibernicus (Copepoda : Cyclopoida) living in the compound ascidian Polyclinum aurantium. J. Crust. Biol. 25:
181-189.
Paffenhöfer, G. A. and Koster, M. 2005.
Digestion of diatoms by planktonic copepods and doliolids. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 297: 303-310.
Philips, A. A., Blein, M. M., Robert, A. A., Philippe, J., Chambon, J. P., Baghdiguian, S.
S., Weill, M. M. and Fort, P. P. 2003. Ascidians as a
vertebrate-like model organism for physiological studies of Rho
GTPase signaling. Biol. Cell 95: 295-302.
Prodon, F., Dru, P., Roegiers, F. and Sardet, C. 2005.
Polarity of the ascidian egg cortex and relocalization
of cER and mRNAs in the early embryo. J. Cell Sci. 118: 2393-2404.
Proksch, P., Ebel, R., Edrada, R. A., Wray, V. and Steube,
K. 2003. Bioactive natural products from marine invertebrates and associated
fungi. Prog. Molec. Subcell. Biol. 37: 117-142.
Ranasinghe, J. A., Mikel, T. K., Velarde, R. G., Weisberg, S. B., Montagne,
D. E., Cadien, D. B. and Dalkey,
A. 2005. The prevalence of non-indigenous species in southern
Raskoff, K. A. and Robison, B. H. 2005. A novel mutualistic relationship between a doliolid
and a cnidarian, Bythotiara dolioeques sp nov. J. Mar.
Biol. Ass.
Ravinder, K., Reddy, A. V., Krishnaiah
, P., Ramesh, P., Ramakrishna, S., Laatsch, H. and Venkateswarlu, Y.
2005. Isolation and synthesis of a novel beta-carboline
guanidine derivative tiruchanduramine from the Indian
ascidian Synoicum macroglossum.
Tetrahed. Lett. 46:
5475-5478.
Reddy, S. M., Srinivasulu, M., Satyanarayana,
N., Kondapi, A. K. and Venkateswarlu,
Y. 2005. New potent cytotoxic lamellarin alkaloids
from Indian ascidian Didemnum obscurum.
Tetrahedron 61: 9242-9247.
Rhee, J. M., Oda-Ishii,
Ribes, M., Coma, R., Atkinson, M. J. and Kinzie, R. A. 2005. Sponges and ascidians control removal
of particulate organic nitrogen from coral reef water. Limnol.
Oceanog. 50: 1480-1489.
Rinkevich, B. 2005. Natural chimerism
in colonial urochordates. J. Exp. Mar. Biol. Ecol. 322: 93-109.
Rinkevich, B. 2005. Marine invertebrate cell cultures: new
millennium trends. Mar. Biotechnol. 7:
429-439.
Robison, B. H., Raskoff, K. A. and Sherlock, R. E. 2005. Ecological
substrate in midwater: Doliolula
equus, a new mesopelagic tunicate. J. Mar. Biol.
Ass.
Robison, B. H., Reisenbichler, K. R. and Sherlock, R. E. 2005. Giant larvacean houses: rapid carbon transport to the deep sea
floor. Science 308: 1609-1611.
Romanenko, L. A., Uchino, M., Falsen,
E., Lysenko, A. M., Zhukova,
N. V. and Mikhailov, V. V. 2005. Pseudomonas xanthomarina sp. nov., a
novel bacterium isolated from marine ascidian. J. Gen. Appl.
Microbiol. 51: 65-71.
Rychel, A. L., Smith, S. E., Shimamoto,
H. T. and Swalla, B. J. 2005. Evolution and development of the chordates:
collagen and pharyngeal cartilage. Mol. Biol. Evol. 23:
1–9.
Sanamyan, K. E. and Sanamyan, N. P.
2005. Deep-water ascidians from the
Sardet, C., Dru, P. and Prodon, F. 2005. Cortical determinants and mRNAs in
ascidian eggs and embryos. Biol. Cell 97: 35-49.
Sasakura, Y., Nakashima, K., Awazu,
S., Matsuoka, T., Nakayama, A., Azuma, J. and Satoh, N. 2005. Transposon-mediated insertional
mutagenesis revealed the functions of animal cellulose synthase
in the ascidian Ciona intestinalis. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci.
102: 15134-15139.
Satoh, N. and Levine,
M. 2005. Surfing with the tunicates into the post-genome era. Genes Dev. 19:
2407-2411.
Satou, Y., Kawashima, T., Shoguchi,
E., Nakayama, A. and Satoh, N. 2005. An integrated database of the ascidian, Ciona
intestinalis: towards functional genomics. Zool. Sci. 22: 837-843.
Satou, Y. and Satoh, N. 2005. Cataloging transcription
factor and major signaling molecule genes for functional genomic studies in Ciona
intestinalis. Dev. Genes & Evol. 215:
580-596.
Sawada, H. 2004. Spermosin. In: Barrett, A. J., Rawlings, N. D. and Woessner, J. F. (ed.), Handbook of Proteolytic
Enzymes.
Sawada, H., Akasaka, M., Yokota, N. and
Sawada, K.,
Scheinberg, R. D., Landry, M. R. and Calbet,
A. 2005. Grazing of two common appendicularians on the natural prey assemblage
of a tropical coastal
ecosystem. Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. 294: 201–212.
Schmidt, E. W.,
Nelson, J. T., Rasko, D. A., Sudek,
S., Eisen, J. A., Haygood,
M. G. and Ravel, J. 2005. Patellamide A and C
biosynthesis by a microcin-like pathway in Prochloron didemni,
the cyanobacterial symbiont of Lissoclinum
patella. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 102:
7315-7320.
Schuett, C., Doepke, H., Groepler, W. and Wichels, A.
2005. Diversity of intratunical bacteria in the tunic
matrix of the colonial ascidian Diplosoma migrans.
Shimeld, S. M., Purkiss, A. G.,
Dirks, R. P. H., Bateman, O. A., Slingsby, C. and Lubsen, N. H. 2005. Urochordate ßy-crystallin
and the evolutionary origin of the vertebrate eye lens. Curr.
Biol. 15: 1684–1689.
Shoguchi, E., Kawashima, T., Nishida-Umehara,
C., Matsuda, Y. and Satoh, N. 2005. Molecular cytogenetic
characterization of Ciona intestinalis chromosomes. Zool.
Sci. 22: 511-516.
Simon-Levert, A., Arrault, A., Bontemps-Subielos, N., Canal, C. and Banaigs,
B. 2005. Meroterpenes from the ascidian Aplidium
aff. densum. J. Nat.
Prod. 68: 1412-1415.
Soviknes, A. M., Chourrout, D. and
Glover, J. C. 2005. Development of putative GABAergic
neurons in the appendicularian urochordate Oikopleura dioica.
J. Comp. Neurobiol. 490: 12-28.
Spada, F., Chioda, M. and
Thompson, E. M. 2005. Histone H4 post-translational
modifications in chordate mitotic and endoreduplicative
cell cycles. J. Cell. Biochem. 95: 885-901.
Stemple, D. L. 2005. Structure and function of the notochord:
an essential organ for chordate development. Development 132: 2503-2512.
Suzuki, M. M.,
Nishikawa, T. and Bird, A. 2005. Genomic approaches reveal unexpected genetic
divergence within Ciona intestinalis. J. Mol. Evol.
1–9.
Takada, N., Yamaguchi,
H., Shida, K., Terajima,
D., Satou, Y., Kasuya, A.,
Satoh, N., Satake, M. and Wang, H. G. 2005. The cell
death machinery controlled by Bax and Bcl-XL is evolutionarily conserved in Ciona intestinalis.
Apoptosis epub advance publication
Takahashi, T. 2005.
The evolutionary origins of vertebrate midbrain and MHB: insights from mouse,
amphioxus and ascidian Dmbx homeobox
genes. Brain Res. Bull. 66: 510-517.
Takeuchi, K., Satou, Y., Yamamoto, H. and Satoh, N. 2005. A genome-wide
survey of genes for enzymes involved in pigment synthesis in an ascidian, Ciona
intestinalis. Zool. Sci.
22: 723-734.
Tello, J. A., Rivier, J. E. and
Sherwood, N. M. 2005. Tunicate gonadotropin-releasing
hormone (GnRH) peptides selectively activate Ciona
intestinalis GnRH receptors and the green monkey
type II GnRH receptor. Endocrinology 146:
4061-4073.
Teruya, T., Suenaga, K., Maruyama,
S., Kurotaki, M. and Kigoshi,
H. 2005. Biselides A-E: novel polyketides
from the Okinawan ascidian Didemnidae sp. Tetrahedron
61: 6561-6567.
Tokuoka, M., Satoh, N. and Satou,
Y. 2005. A bHLH transcription factor gene,
Twist-like1, is essential for the formation of mesodermal
tissues of Ciona juveniles. Dev. Biol. epub:
Tsuneki, H., You, Y., Toyooka, N., Sasaoka, T., Nemoto, H., Dani, J. A. and Kimura,
Turon, X. 2005. A new mode of colony multiplication by
modified budding in the ascidian Clavelina gemmae n. sp. (Clavelinidae).
Invert. Biol. 124: 273–283.
Vinson, J. P., Jaffe,
D. B., O'Neill, K., Karlsson, E. K., Stange-Thomann, N., Anderson, S., Mesirov,
J. P., Satoh, N., Satou, Y., Nusbaum,
C., Birren, B., Galagan, J.
E. and Lander, E. S. 2005. Assembly of polymorphic genomes: algorithms and
application to Ciona savignyi. Genome Res. 15: 1127-1135.
Wada, H., Kobayashi,
M. and Zhang, S. 2005. Ets identified as a
trans-regulatory factor of amphioxus Hox2 by transgenic analysis using ascidian
embryos. Dev. Biol. 285: 524-532.
Wasson, K., Fenn, K. and Pearse, J. S. 2005.
Habitat differences in marine invasions of central
Witzell, W. N. and Schmid, J. R.
2005. Diet of immature Kemp's ridley turtles (Lepidochelys kempi) from
Wonham, M. J. and
Yagi, K., Takatori, N., Satou, Y. and Satoh, N. 2005. Ci-Tbx6b and Ci-Tbx6c are key
mediators of the maternal effect gene Ci-macho1 in muscle cell differentiation
in Ciona intestinalis embryos. Dev. Biol. 282: 535-549.
Yamada, L., Kobayashi,
K., Satou, Y. and Satoh, N. 2005. Microarray
analysis of localization of maternal transcripts in eggs and early embryos of
the ascidian, Ciona intestinalis. Dev.
Biol. 284: 536-550.
Yoshihara, M., Ueki,
T., Watanabe, T., Yamaguchi, N., Kamino, K. and Michibata, H. 2005. VanabinP, a
novel vanadium-binding protein in the blood plasma of an ascidian, Ascidia sydneiensis samea. Biochim. Biophys. Acta: Gene Struct. Exp. 1730:
206-214.
Zeller, R. W., Weldon,
D. S., Pellatiro, M. A. and Cone, A. C. 2006. Optimized
green fluorescent protein variants provide improved single cell resolution of transgene expression in ascidian embryos. Dev. Dyn. epub:
Zubia, E., Ortega, M. J. and Salva,
J. 2005. Natural products chemistry in marine ascidians of the genus Aplidium.
Mini-Rev. in Org. Chem. 2: 389-399.