title: The draft genome of Ciona intestinalis: insights into chordate and vertebrate origins.
abstract: 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. The Ciona genome contains approximately 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.
authors.affiliation: U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, 2800 Mitchell Drive, Walnut Creek, CA 94598, USA.
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mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis; D001483:Base Sequence; D002482:Cellulose / Q000378:metabolism; D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000502:physiology; D002938:Ciona intestinalis / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D019295:Computational Biology; D004703:Endocrine System / Q000502:physiology; D018628:Gene Dosage; D020440:Gene Duplication; D005796:Genes; D005801:Genes, Homeobox; D016678:Genome; D006321:Heart / Q000196:embryology / Q000502:physiology; D007109:Immunity / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D005810:Multigene Family; D009124:Muscle Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D020897:Organizers, Embryonic / Q000502:physiology; D010802:Phylogeny; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D013045:Species Specificity; D013961:Thyroid Gland / Q000502:physiology; D014561:Urochordata / Q000235:genetics; D014714:Vertebrates / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D009124:Muscle Proteins; D011506:Proteins; D002482:Cellulose