The Draft Genome of Ciona intestinalis: Insights into Chordate and Vertebrate Origins

The first chordates appear in the fossil record at the time of the Cambrian explosion, nearly 550 million years ago. The modern ascidian tadpole represents a plausible approximation to these ancestral chordates. To illuminate the origins of chordate and vertebrates, we generated a draft of the protein-coding portion of the genome of the most studied ascidian, Ciona intestinalis. TheCiona genome contains ∼16,000 protein-coding genes, similar to the number in other invertebrates, but only half that found in vertebrates. Vertebrate gene families are typically found in simplified form in Ciona, suggesting that ascidians contain the basic ancestral complement of genes involved in cell signaling and development. The ascidian genome has also acquired a number of lineage-specific innovations, including a group of genes engaged in cellulose metabolism that are related to those in bacteria and fungi.

Paul Richardson | David N. Keys | Fumiko Ohta | Ian A. Meinertzhagen | Takeshi Kawashima | Yuji Kohara | Kazuhiro W. Makabe | Kenji Kobayashi | Olivier Tassy | Monica Medina | Paramvir S. Dehal | Shuichi Wada | Jarrod Chapman | Sachiko Miura | David M. Goodstein | Michael Levine | Kazuo Inaba | Daniel S. Rokhsar | Frank Larimer | Tomomi Morishita | Kohji Hotta | Yutaka Satou | Lixy Yamada | Yasunori Sasakura | Norman Doggett | Kaoru Azumi | Paramvir Dehal | Masanobu Satake | Isaac Y. Ho | Tijana Glavina | Isaac Ho | Satoko Awazu | Isidore Rigoutsos | Sam Rash | Astrid Terry | Akie Nakayama | Naohito Takatori | Shinobu Haga | Hisayo Nomoto | Nori Satoh | M. Levine | I. Meinertzhagen | B. Degnan | J. Chapman | Y. Kohara | N. Doggett | I. Rigoutsos | T. Hawkins | P. Richardson | S. Lucas | N. Putnam | Sam Rash | M. Gelpke | C. Detter | D. Rokhsar | R. Campbell | K. Hotta | D. Stainier | J. Boore | P. Lemaire | D. Keys | Olivier Tassy | C. Manohar | G. Matassi | D. Goodstein | N. Satoh | E. Shoguchi | F. Larimer | A. Terry | M. Medina | N. Takatori | H. Saiga | Kazuko Oishi | T. Shin-I | Diego Martínez | T. Glavina | S. Wada | K. Inaba | Wayne Huang | Miho M. Suzuki | Anna Di Gregorio | M. Nonaka | K. Yagi | K. Azumi | Y. Satou | M. Branno | T. Kawashima | Y. Sasakura | K. Makabe | K. Hastings | S. Doyle | Fumiko Yoshizaki | M. Satake | Akane Sasaki | Susan Lucas | Giorgio Matassi | Diego Martinez | L. Yamada | Chris Detter | Eiichi Shoguchi | Brad Davidson | A. De Tomaso | B. Davidson | N. Harafuji | Simona Necula | Hong-gang Wang | S. Awazu | S. Chin-bow | R. Desantis | P. Francino | S. Haga | H. Hayashi | K. Hino | K. Imai | S. Kano | Kenji Kobayashi | Mari Kobayashi | Byung-in Lee | Y. Mochizuki | S. Mount | T. Morishita | Sachiko Miura | A. Nakayama | Satoko Nishizaka | H. Nomoto | Fumiko Ohta | Masako Sano | Antoinetta Spagnuolo | M. Tokuoka | Cindy Zhang | P. D. Hyatt | Anna Di Gregorio | Kazuko Oishi | Kyosuke Hino | Kasumi Yagi | Patrick Lemaire | Wayne Huang | Didier Stainier | Miki Tokuoka | Masaru Nonaka | Tadasu Shin-i | Masako Sano | Hiroko Hayashi | Satoko Nishizaka | Jeffrey Boore | Hong-Gang Wang | Yasuaki Mochizuki | Akane Sasaki | Naoe Harafuji | Hidetoshi Saiga | Nik Putnam | Robert K. Campbell | Bernard Degnan | Anthony De Tomaso | Maarten Gelpke | Kenneth E. M. Hastings | Simona Necula | Margherita Branno | Stephen Chin-bow | Rosaria DeSantis | Sharon Doyle | Pilar Francino | Kaoru S. Imai | Shungo Kano | Mari Kobayashi | Byung-In Lee | Chitra Manohar | Steve Mount | Antoinetta Spagnuolo | Fumiko Yoshizaki | Cindy Zhang | P. Douglas Hyatt | Trevor Hawkins | Satoko Awazu | A. D. De Tomaso | Hong-Gang Wang | Tijana Glavina | Naohito Takatori | Akie Nakayama | Lixy Yamada | Pilar Francino | Yasuaki Mochizuki | Jarrod Chapman

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