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

在发育过程中，单个细胞分裂并分化成为一个完整的多细胞生物。理解正常发育对于理解发育缺陷和癌症至关重要，其中发育程序已被重新激活，导致不受控制的生长和转移。文昌鱼（佛罗里达Branchiostoma floridae）被证明是一种极好的发育模式，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。文昌鱼的基因组是完全测序和有广泛的克隆的基因表达发育文库。因此，在文昌鱼中识别发育基因和基因网络比在脊椎动物模式生物中更容易。尽管有这些优势，文昌鱼并没有被广泛研究，因为胚胎只在有限的繁殖季节可用。本研究建立在文昌鱼养殖最新突破的基础上，建立了文昌鱼在实验室连续培养的方案，以及对文昌鱼进行基因操作以确定基因功能的方法。文昌鱼成功的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，但成本较低。因此，该项目将为迅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提供。研究结果将发表在同行评议的期刊上，并在科学会议上发表。这项工作还将每年为一名研究生、两名本科生和1-2名高中生提供独特的教育机会。最后，此计画将加强美国与台湾研究实验室间的国际合作，为发育生物学社群建立新的网路资源，并透过圣地牙哥伯奇水族馆与科罗拉多大学自然历史博物馆纳入教育外展活动。有关该项目的信息可通过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.