Development of forward gentics methods in appendicularians as a novel chordate model organism

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26650079
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Developmental biology
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: Nishida Hiroki 大阪大学, 理学(系)研究科(研究院), 教授 (60192689)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): ONUMA Takeshi 大阪大学, 大学院理学研究科, 助教 (30632103)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: オヤマボヤ / 尾虫類 / 遺伝子導入 / DNAi / トランスジェネシス / RNAseq / 遺伝子機能阻害

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The appendicularian, Oikopleura dioica is a planktonic chordate, which share basic bodyplan with vertebrates. The life cycle is just 5 days. In this project, we aimed to make O. dioica an emerging model animal with which genetic approaches are feasible, such as in nematode and fly. In the processes of this project, we found that novel DNAi method works in this animal. Gene knockdown using DNAi will facilitate to screen and find developmentally important genes with ease and less expensive way.

Free Research Field

生物科学・発生生物学