title: Identification of thirty-four transcripts expressed specifically in hemocytes of Ciona intestinalis and their expression profiles throughout the life cycle.
abstract: The innate immunity of ascidian hemocytes is considered to be a prototype of that in vertebrates. In this study, we identified as many transcripts as possible that were expressed specifically in hemocytes of Ciona intestinalis, a ubiquitous species of ascidian. Using a large-scale whole-mount in situ hybridization (WISH) technique and young adult specimens of C. intestinalis, 34 such transcripts were identified. Three of these appeared to encode immunity-related polypeptides, whereas 23 encoded hypothetical and/or new genes. Interestingly, different sets of transcripts appeared to be expressed in different subsets of hemocytes, as revealed by double-colored WISH. The 34 genes were categorized into two major subgroups based on their expression patterns during the C. intestinalis life cycle. Based on the gene expression profiles, we speculate that C. intestinalis hemocytes may exert more pleiotropic effects in immunity than previously believed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Chiba University, Inage-ku, Chiba 263-8522, Japan.
authors.forename: Michio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ogasawara
authors.forename: Noriko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Nakazawa
authors.forename: Kaoru
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Azumi
authors.forename: Eiji
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yamabe
authors.forename: Nori
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Satoh
authors.forename: Masanobu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Satake
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002938:Ciona intestinalis / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D030561:Databases, Nucleic Acid; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005796:Genes; D006434:Hemocytes / Q000378:metabolism*; D007113:Immunity, Innate / Q000235:genetics; D017403:In Situ Hybridization; D008018:Life Cycle Stages; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D009928:Organ Specificity / Q000235:genetics