TY - JOUR
T1 - A genomewide survey of developmentally relevant genes in Ciona intestinalis. I. Genes for bHLH transcription factors
AU - Satou, Yutaka
AU - Imai, Kaoru S.
AU - Levine, Michael
AU - Kohara, Yuji
AU - Rokhsar, Daniel
AU - Satoh, Nori
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements This research was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from MEXT and JSPS, Japan, to Y.S. (14704070) and N.S. (12202001). K.S.I. was a Predoctoral Fellow of JSPS with a research grant (12003588). We thank Kazuko Hirayama, Chikako Imaizumi, Asako Fujimoto, and Hisayoshi Ishikawa for their technical support.
PY - 2003/6/1
Y1 - 2003/6/1
N2 - The basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) proteins are transcription factors that play important roles in many biological processes, including the development of various animals. We identified 46 genes encoding bHLH proteins in the draft genome sequence of the basal chordate Ciona intestinalis. These 46 genes represent an almost complete set of bHLH genes in this animal. This number is comparable to 39 and 58 bHLH genes in those of Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster but is much smaller than the 125 in the human genome. Genes that encode NeuroD, Beta3, Oligo, SCL, NSCL, SRC, Clock and Bmal were not found in the Ciona genome. We could also identify groucho and CBP orthologues in the Ciona genome. In addition, the comparison between the numbers of orthologous human and Ciona bHLH factors reveals the simplicity of the Ciona genome, in accordance with its phylogenetic position within chordates. The present analysis provides an insight into the basic set of bHLH genes that the last common ancestor of ascidians and vertebrates had, and will provide important background information for future studies using ascidians as a model system for vertebrate development.
AB - The basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) proteins are transcription factors that play important roles in many biological processes, including the development of various animals. We identified 46 genes encoding bHLH proteins in the draft genome sequence of the basal chordate Ciona intestinalis. These 46 genes represent an almost complete set of bHLH genes in this animal. This number is comparable to 39 and 58 bHLH genes in those of Caenorhabditis elegans and Drosophila melanogaster but is much smaller than the 125 in the human genome. Genes that encode NeuroD, Beta3, Oligo, SCL, NSCL, SRC, Clock and Bmal were not found in the Ciona genome. We could also identify groucho and CBP orthologues in the Ciona genome. In addition, the comparison between the numbers of orthologous human and Ciona bHLH factors reveals the simplicity of the Ciona genome, in accordance with its phylogenetic position within chordates. The present analysis provides an insight into the basic set of bHLH genes that the last common ancestor of ascidians and vertebrates had, and will provide important background information for future studies using ascidians as a model system for vertebrate development.
KW - Basal chordates
KW - Ciona intestinalis
KW - Genes for basic helix-loop-helix proteins
KW - Genomewide survey
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0038150206&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0038150206&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s00427-003-0319-7
DO - 10.1007/s00427-003-0319-7
M3 - Article
C2 - 12736824
AN - SCOPUS:0038150206
SN - 0949-944X
VL - 213
SP - 213
EP - 221
JO - Archiv für Entwickleungsmechanik der Organismen
JF - Archiv für Entwickleungsmechanik der Organismen
IS - 5-6
ER -