The Draft Genome of <i>Ciona intestinalis</i> : Insights into Chordate and Vertebrate Origins
Paramvir Dehal(Joint Genome Institute), Yutaka Satou(Kyoto University), R. Keith Campbell(Marine Biological Laboratory), Jarrod Chapman(Joint Genome Institute), Bernard M. Degnan(The University of Queensland), Anthony De Tomaso(Stanford Medicine), Brad Davidson(University of California, Berkeley), Anna Di Gregorio(University of California, Berkeley), Maarten D. Sollewijn Gelpke(Joint Genome Institute), David Goodstein(Joint Genome Institute), Naoe Harafuji(University of California, Berkeley), Kenneth E.M. Hastings(Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital), Isaac Ho(Joint Genome Institute), Kohji Hotta(National Institute of Genetics), Wayne Huang(Joint Genome Institute), Takeshi Kawashima(Kyoto University), Patrick Lemaire(Institut de Biologie du Développement Marseille), Diego Martínez(Joint Genome Institute), Ian A. Meinertzhagen(Dalhousie University), Simona Necula(Joint Genome Institute), Masaru Nonaka, Nik Putnam(Joint Genome Institute), Sam Rash(Joint Genome Institute), Hidetoshi Saiga(Tokyo Metropolitan University), Masanobu Satake(Tohoku University), Astrid Terry(Joint Genome Institute), Lixy Yamada(Kyoto University), Hong‐Gang Wang(Moffitt Cancer Center), Satoko Awazu(Kyoto University), Kaoru Azumi(Hokkaido University), Jeffrey L. Boore(Joint Genome Institute), Margherita Branno(Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn), Stephen T. Chin-Bow(IBM (United States)), Rosaria Desantis(Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn), Sharon A. Doyle(Joint Genome Institute), M. Pilar Francino(Joint Genome Institute), David N. Keys(Joint Genome Institute), Shinobu Haga(National Institute of Genetics), Hiroko Hayashi(National Institute of Genetics), Kyosuke Hino(Kyoto University), Kaoru S. Imai(Kyoto University), Kazuo Inaba(Tohoku University), Shungo Kano(Kyoto University), Kenji Kobayashi(Kyoto University), Mari Kobayashi(Kyoto University), Byung-In Lee(Joint Genome Institute), Kazuhiro W. Makabe(Kyoto University), Chitra Manohar(Joint Genome Institute), Giorgio Matassi(Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn), Mónica Medina(Joint Genome Institute), Yasuaki Mochizuki(Kyoto University), Steve Mount(University of Maryland, College Park), Tomomi Morishita(National Institute of Genetics), Sachiko Miura(National Institute of Genetics), A. Nakayama(Kyoto University), Satoko Nishizaka(National Institute of Genetics), Hisayo Nomoto(National Institute of Genetics), Fumiko Ohta(National Institute of Genetics), Kazuko Oishi(National Institute of Genetics), Isidore Rigoutsos(IBM (United States)), Masako Sano(National Institute of Genetics), Akane Sasaki(Kyoto University), Yasunori Sasakura(Kyoto University), Eiichi Shoguchi(Kyoto University), Tadasu Shin‐I(National Institute of Genetics), Antonietta Spagnuolo(Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn), Didier Y. R. Stainier(Institut thématique Génétique, génomique et bioinformatique), Miho Suzuki(Wellcome Centre for Cell Biology), Olivier Tassy(Institut de Biologie du Développement Marseille), Naohito Takatori(Kyoto University), Miki Tokuoka(Kyoto University), Kasumi Yagi(Kyoto University), Fumiko Yoshizaki, Shuichi Wada(Kyoto University), Cindy Zhang(Joint Genome Institute), P. Douglas Hyatt(Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Frank W. Larimer(Oak Ridge National Laboratory), Chris Detter(Joint Genome Institute), Norman A. Doggett(Los Alamos National Laboratory), Tijana Glavina(Joint Genome Institute), Trevor Hawkins(Joint Genome Institute), Paul Richardson(Joint Genome Institute), Susan Lucas(Joint Genome Institute), Yuji Kohara(National Institute of Genetics), Michael Levine(Innovative Genomics Institute), Nori Satoh(Kyoto University), Daniel S. Rokhsar(Joint Genome Institute)
Cited by 1,652Open Access
Abstract
The first chordates appear in the fossil record at the time of the Cambrian explosion, nearly 550 million years ago. The modern ascidian tadpole represents a plausible approximation to these ancestral chordates. To illuminate the origins of chordate and vertebrates, we generated a draft of the protein-coding portion of the genome of the most studied ascidian, Ciona intestinalis . The Ciona genome contains ∼16,000 protein-coding genes, similar to the number in other invertebrates, but only half that found in vertebrates. Vertebrate gene families are typically found in simplified form in Ciona , suggesting that ascidians contain the basic ancestral complement of genes involved in cell signaling and development. The ascidian genome has also acquired a number of lineage-specific innovations, including a group of genes engaged in cellulose metabolism that are related to those in bacteria and fungi.