Developing methodologies for developmental genetics of an appendicularian, Oikopleura dioica.

浮游衣藻Oikopleura dioica是研究脊索发育机制的候选模式生物。它的生命周期很短，只有五天，并且由少量的细胞组成。在这项研究中，我的目标是使用这种简单的脊索酸建立分子和遗传学方法。首先，我尝试了转座子介导的水稻转基因。我的分析确定了三个转座子，其中外源转座酶mRNAs被翻译成蛋白质并定位于早期胚胎的细胞核。其次，我从日本野生稻中克隆了几个cDNA。它们包括睾丸特异组蛋白和其他模式生物中调节细胞极化和轴形成的蛋白质的同系物。此外，为了鉴定未受精卵和幼虫中所有的mRNA转录产物，进行了RNA序列分析。三是进行10代以上的近交，建立自交系。

A planktonic tunicate, Oikopleura dioica, is a candidate model organism to understand mechanisms of chordate development. It has the short life cycle of only five days and consists of small number of cells. In this study, I aimed to establish molecular and genetic approaches using this simple chordate. First, I tried transposon-mediated transgenesis of O. dioica. My analyses identified three transposons of which exogenous transposase mRNAs are translated to proteins and localize to the nucleus of early embryos. Second, I cloned several cDNAs from Japanese O. dioica. They include testis-specific histones and homologues of proteins that regulate cell polarizing and axis formation in other model organisms. Furthermore, to characterize all mRNA transcripts in unfertilized eggs and larvae, RNA seq analysis was performed. Third, inbreeding over 10 generations was carried out to establish inbred line.