Screening and identification of differentially expressed genes in gonadal tissues in colonial ascidian

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Animals that propagate asexually are exciting models to investigate the cellular system, which produces germline cells constitutively throughout life. In botryllid ascidians, each of the asexual individuals produces hermaphrodite gonads during breading season. To understand the molecular mechanisms underlying gamete and gonadal development, screening and identification of differentially expressed genes in gonadal tissues were performed. Subtractive cDNA library was constructed from cDNAs synthesized from the Botryllus primigenus colonies with and without mature gonads. 104 transcripts were isolated from the library. We then determined the ratio of the expression in colonies with mature gonads to the expression in asexually growing colonies by qRT-PCR. Among the transcripts, 91 showed higher ratios above 1.. In order to elucidate the roles of the genes chosen from the list, functional analyses with genetic knockdown using siRNAs have been successfully performed.