Project description:The ascidia Halocynthia roretzi (Phylum: Chordata, Subphylum: Tunicata, Class: Ascidiacea) have been used as model species in development biology for over a century. It offers attractive experimental features, including a compact genome, invariant embryonic cell lineages, small embryonic cell number, and translucent embryos, which allow the description of developmental processes with a cellular level of resolution. Staged RNA-seq data has been already deposited in DDBJ (accessiton number DRA005714 and DRA005711). In the present study, we sequenced genome of H. roretzi of a southwestern Japanese population using RNA-Seq data. These RNA-Seq data covers expressions in 8 cell and 110 cell embryos of Animal(A), Vegetal(V) and whole-embryo regions. These genome assembly, transcript assembly, and transcript models are incorporated into the ANISEED (https://www.aniseed.cnrs.fr/) for genome browsing and blast searches. The genome and transcriptome resources will be useful datasets for developmental biology, evolutionary biology and molecular ecology using this model organism.
Project description:Despite the beneficial effects shown when the mitochondrial alternative oxidase AOX from Ciona intestinalis (Tunicata: Ascidiacea) is xenotopically expressed in mammalian and insect models, important detrimental outcomes have also been reported, raising concerns regarding its envisioned deployment as a therapy enzyme for human mitochondrial and related diseases. We have shown previously that AOX-expressing flies present a dramatic drop in pupal viability when the larvae are cultured on a low nutrient (LN) diet, indicating that AOX interferes with normal developmental metabolism. Here, we applied the metabolomics approach to gain insights into the molecular basis of the fatal developmental interaction between AOX expression and LN diet. We investigated the whole-body metabolome of AOX-expressing and control larvae cultured on SD and LN diets.
Project description:Molecular characterisation of the syntype of Botrylloides crystallinus n. sp. (Tunicata, Ascidiacea, Styelidae) from Mediterranean Sea
