title: Developmental expression and transcriptional regulation of Ci-Pans, a novel neural marker gene of the ascidian, Ciona intestinalis.
abstract: A novel gene, named Ci-Pans, was isolated and characterized from the ascidian Ciona intestinalis. It is an 885-bp cDNA, is thought to encode a protein with no sequence similarities to known proteins and shows a spatial and temporal specific expression pattern. In fact, besides a transient early localization in the muscle precursors, it is expressed in a dynamic fashion in the nervous system, during C. intestinalis embryogenesis, reaching very high level of expression as the development proceeds. To study Ci-Pans transcriptional control, we isolated the predicted promoter region of C. intestinalis Ci-Pans using databases for this species. Analysis of transgenic embryos, with a green fluorescence protein (GFP) reporter, showed that approximately 1 kb of the 5'-flanking sequence of the Ci-Pans gene was implicated in its specific expression in the CNS. The data on the expression pattern of Ci-Pans together with the strong activity exhibited by the 1 kb promoter region we have identified, indicate that a more deeply investigation on Ci-Pans could provide clues for exploring the complex network of nervous system-specific genes.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Stazione Zoologica A. Dohrn, Villa Comunale, 80121, Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Alfano
authors.forename: Monia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Teresa Russo
authors.forename: Antonietta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Spagnuolo
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002490:Central Nervous System / Q000196:embryology*; D002938:Ciona intestinalis / Q000235:genetics*; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental; D005819:Genetic Markers; D017403:In Situ Hybridization; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data
chemical_list: D005819:Genetic Markers