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A morphological and genetic characterization of metamorphosis in the ascidian Boltenia villosa

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Abstract

Ascidian metamorphosis is a critical life history stage for exploring chordate evolution and conserved chordate developmental signaling pathways. The vast majority of research on ascidian development has been focused on embryogenesis. Thus there is still little known about the development of ascidian post-larval structures, including differentiation of the chordate pharyngeal gill slits and endostyle along with the heart, blood cells and gut. In this paper, we present our research on metamorphosis in the solitary ascidian Boltenia villosa. Through careful analysis of phalloidin staining in young juveniles, we have discerned a highly coordinated series of developmental events underlying the differentiation of the gut and body wall musculature. Additionally, we have employed subtractive hybridizations to isolate genes that are differentially transcribed during Boltenia metamorphosis. Some of these genes are expressed throughout ascidian development and some appear to be uniquely expressed during metamorphosis. Here we characterize several transcripts with potential developmental functions and discuss their possible roles in the differentiation of adult structures during solitary ascidian metamorphosis.

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Acknowledgements

Much of this research was carried out at UW Friday Harbor Laboratories, especially during the Undergraduate Evo-Devo Research Apprenticeship of Spring 2001. We would like to express our gratitude to the excellent FHL staff for their help in obtaining housing, supplies, and research space. We also thank Dennis Willows, Richard Strathmann and Scott Schwinge for their help and support during our research studies there. We also thank Alan Aderem at the Institute for Systems Biology for his generous advice and support from grant R37AI25032 (NIH). B.J.D. was supported as a graduate student by an NIH Developmental Biology Training Grant Fellowship and on a UW Royalty Research Grant. This research was funded by University of Washington Start-Up funds and a Royalty Research Grant awarded to B.J.S.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biology Department and Center for Developmental Biology, University of Washington, Box 351800, Seattle, WA, 98195-1800, USA

    Brad Davidson, Shannon E. Smith Wallace, Rebecca A. Howsmon & Billie J. Swalla

  2. Friday Harbor Laboratories, University of Washington, 620 University Road, Friday Harbor, WA, 98250-9299, USA

    Brad Davidson, Shannon E. Smith Wallace, Rebecca A. Howsmon & Billie J. Swalla

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  1. Brad Davidson
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Correspondence to Billie J. Swalla.

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Davidson, B., Smith Wallace, S.E., Howsmon, R.A. et al. A morphological and genetic characterization of metamorphosis in the ascidian Boltenia villosa . Dev Genes Evol 213, 601–611 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00427-003-0363-3

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