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A genomewide survey of developmentally relevant genes in Ciona intestinalis

VII. Molecules involved in the regulation of cell polarity and actin dynamics

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Abstract

In the present study, genes involved in the pathways that establish cell polarity and cascades regulating actin dynamics were identified in the completely sequenced genome of Ciona intestinalis, a basal chordate. It was revealed that the Ciona genome contains orthologous genes of each component of aPKC-Par and PCP pathways and WASP/WAVE/SCAR and ADF/cofilin cascades, with less redundancy than the vertebrate genomes, suggesting that the conserved pathways/cascades function in Ciona development. In addition, the present study found that the orthologous proteins of five gene groups (Tc10, WRCH, RhoD, PLC-L, and PSKH) are conserved in humans and Ciona but not in Drosophila melanogaster, suggesting a similarity in the gene composition of Ciona to that of vertebrates. Ciona intestinalis, therefore, may provide refined clues for the study of vertebrate development and evolution.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from MEXT, Japan to Y. Satou (13044001) and N.S. (12202001). Y. Sasakura was a Postdoctoral Fellow of JSPS with a research grant (14000967). We thank Kazuko Hirayama, Chikako Imaizumi, Asako Fujimoto, and Hisayoshi Ishikawa for their technical support.

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  1. Department of Zoology, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606–8502, Japan

    Yasunori Sasakura, Lixy Yamada, Naohito Takatori, Yutaka Satou & Nori Satoh

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  1. Yasunori Sasakura
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  2. Lixy Yamada
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  3. Naohito Takatori
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  5. Nori Satoh
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Correspondence to Nori Satoh.

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Sasakura, Y., Yamada, L., Takatori, N. et al. A genomewide survey of developmentally relevant genes in Ciona intestinalis . Dev Genes Evol 213, 273–283 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00427-003-0325-9

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