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Expression of a muscle determinant gene, macho-1, in the anural ascidian Molgula tectiformis

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Abstract

In anural (tailless) ascidian species, functional embryonic muscle is not formed. In urodele (tailed) ascidians, macho-1 functions as a maternally supplied factor for embryonic muscle formation. The failure of embryonic muscle development in anural ascidians may be due to the suppression of macho-1 expression. In this paper, however, we report the expression of macho-1 in embryos of an anural ascidian, Molgula tectiformis. Although M. tectiformis has lost the developmental potential to form functional embryonic muscle, macho-1 was expressed in a very similar manner as in urodele ascidians. This result, together with those of previous studies, strongly suggests that in M. tectiformis the upstream genetic cascade responsible for muscle formation is intact, while the downstream cascade including the expression of muscle structural genes is severely affected.

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Acknowledgements

The author thanks Dr. Yutaka Satou for instruction of techniques on molecular biology and critical reading of the manuscript. She also thanks Mr. Koichi Morita and all the staff members of the International Coastal Research Center, Ocean Research Institute of the University of Tokyo for their help in collecting M. tectiformis. Ms. Kazuko Hirayama is acknowledged for technical support. Dr. Yuji Kohara is acknowledged for help with EST sequencing. This study was supported in part by the 21 COE program (A14) for animal diversity research.

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

    Fuki Gyoja

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  1. Fuki Gyoja
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Correspondence to Fuki Gyoja.

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Communicated by N. Satoh

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Gyoja, F. Expression of a muscle determinant gene, macho-1, in the anural ascidian Molgula tectiformis . Dev Genes Evol 216, 285–289 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00427-005-0056-1

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