EAGER: Collaborative Research: Methods for the continuous lab culture and transgenesis of the amphioxus Branchiostoma floridae

在发育过程中，单个细胞分裂和分化成为一个完整的多细胞有机体。了解正常发育对于理解发育缺陷和癌症都是至关重要的，在癌症中，发育程序被重新激活，导致不受控制的生长和转移。文昌鱼(Branchiostoma Floridae)被证明是一个很好的发育模式，因为它与脊椎动物关系密切，但在结构和基因组上都要简单得多。文昌鱼的基因组已经完全测序，并且有大量在发育过程中表达的基因的克隆文库。因此，在文昌鱼中识别发育基因和基因网络被证明比在脊椎动物模式生物中更容易。尽管有这些优势，文昌鱼并没有得到广泛的研究，因为只有在有限的繁殖季节才能获得胚胎。本研究以文昌鱼养殖业最近的突破为基础，建立了在实验室中连续培养文昌鱼的方案，以及通过遗传操作文昌鱼来确定基因功能的方法。文昌鱼的成功实验室培养将使文昌鱼的遗传系得以建立，就像对老鼠和斑马鱼等脊椎动物模型所做的那样，但成本更低。因此，该项目将为快速和经济地解决基本发展进程开辟新的途径。所有开发的方法和资源都将向公众开放。研究结果将发表在同行评议的期刊上，并在科学会议上公布。这项工作还将为每年一名研究生、两名本科生和1-2名高中生提供独特的教育机会。最后，该项目将加强美国和台湾研究实验室之间的国际合作，为发育生物学社区建立一个新的网络资源，并通过圣地亚哥的桦树水族馆和科罗拉多大学自然历史博物馆将其纳入教育推广活动。有关该项目的信息将通过http://www.colorado.edu/eeb/facultysites/medeiros/Home.html.访问

During development, a single cell divides and differentiates to become a complete multicellular organism. Understanding normal development is essential to understanding both developmental defects and cancers, in which developmental programs have been reactivated resulting in uncontrolled growth and metastasis. Amphioxus (Branchiostoma floridae) is proving an excellent model for development as it is closely related to vertebrates but much simpler both structurally and genomically. The amphioxus genome is fully sequenced and there are extensive libraries of clones of genes expressed in development. Thus, identifying developmental genes and gene networks is proving to be easier in amphioxus than in vertebrate model organisms. Despite these advantages, amphioxus is not widely studied because embryos have only been available during a limited breeding season. The present study builds upon recent breakthroughs in amphioxus husbandry to establish protocols for the continuous culture of amphioxus in the laboratory as well as methods for genetically manipulating amphioxus to determine gene functions. Successful laboratory culture of amphioxus will allow genetic lines of amphioxus to be established, as has been done for such vertebrate models as the mouse and zebrafish, but at lower cost. Thus, the project will open up new avenues for rapidly and economically solving basic developmental processes. All methods and resources developed will be made publically available. The results will be published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at scientific meetings. The work will also provide unique educational opportunities for a graduate student, two undergraduates, and 1-2 high school students per year. Finally, the project will strengthen international collaborations between research laboratories in the U.S. and Taiwan, establish a new web resource for the developmental biology community, and be incorporated into educational outreach activities through the Birch Aquarium in San Diego and the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History. Information about the project will be accessible via http://www.colorado.edu/eeb/facultysites/medeiros/Home.html.