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Scientific name
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Background
Ascidians (Phylum: Chordata, Class: Ascidiacea), or sea squirts, are the largest
and most diverse class of the sub-phylum Tunicata (also known as Urochordata).
They comprise approximately 3000 described species found in all marine
habitats from shallow water to the deep sea. There are no freshwater species,
and most cannot tolerate salinities below about 20. Recent phylogenomic
studies suggest that they are actually the sister group to the vertebrates (Bourlat
et al., 2006), although this conflicts with rRNA and mitochondrial data (Swalla
and Smith, 2008). Adult ascidians bear little resemblance to typical chordates,
though their short-lived non-feeding tadpole larvae clearly exhibit the four
fundamental characteristics of the phylum: a dorsal tubular nerve cord,
notochord, rudimentary pharyngeal gill slits and a post-anal tail. Another
important character is the presence of the endostyle in the pharynx that will
evolve as the thyroid gland in vertebrates. Following settlement, the
lecithotrophic larvae undergo metamorphosis during which they lose all of these
characteristics except for the endostyle and the gill slit rudiments in the pharynx
(Millar, 1971), which become functional and multiply to form the branchial sac.
The name "tunicate" (sub-phylum Tunicata) comes from the polysaccharidecontaining tunic that envelops the animal and forms a somewhat flexible
skeleton (Swalla and Cameron, 2010). Various proteins and blood cells occur in
the tunic, and spicules in a few species (Monniot et al., 1991; Hirose 2009).
Ascidians filter their food from the water-column via an oral siphon that brings
water into the branchial sac where food items such as microalgae are filtered
onto a mucus net; water, feces and gametes are expelled through an excurrent
siphon. Particles suspended in the current are trapped along the wall of the
branchial sac in a mucus net produced by the endostyle. The net pores range
from 0.1 to 1 m, allowing ascidians to filter even very small particulate matter,
primarily in the range of 0.5 to 10 m diameter (Bak et al., 1998; Bone et al.,
2003). Several solitary species are cultured for food in Japan, Korea, France and
Chile (Lambert, 2005) or extracted straight from rocky shores for human
consumption or bait (Branch et al. 2010).
During the past two decades enormous progress has been achieved in the fields
of development, evolution, immunology, natural products and ecology of
ascidians. Their small genome, small cell number and (usually) short life-cycle
make them an attractive model system for developmental biologists (Dehal et
al., 2001; Nishida and Sawada 2001). Investigating the phylogenetic position of
the subphylum Tunicata in relation to the other subphyla in the phylum Chordata
is crucial to the understanding of possible mechanisms of chordate evolution
(Swalla et al., 2000; Zeng and Swalla, 2005). The study of self/non-self
recognition in ascidians provides important information regarding the
evolutionary origin of the vertebrate immune system (Khalturin and Bosch,
2007). In addition, ascidians provide a fertile ground for studies in the field of
natural products (Wang et al., 2007 for review), and play an important role in
marine bioinvasions across the globe (Locke and Carman, 2009).
Systematics
Kowalevsky discovered the chordate nature of the ascidian tadpole larva in 1866;
the Ascidiacea were then reclassified as chordates rather than as molluscs (Raff
and Love, 2004). Following Lahille (1886), the class Ascidiacea is now divided
into three orders based on the structure of the adult branchial sac:
Aplousobranchia (colonial), Phlebobranchia and Stolidobranchia. This is the
current designation used by most ascidian taxonomists. All ascidians are
hermaphrodites, having both male and female gonads, though many are not selffertile. There are both solitary and colonial species; numerous excellent
anatomical illustrations can be found in Monniot et al. (1991).
ascidians since 1995 can be found by clicking on the various newsletters listed at
http://depts.washington.edu/ascidian
Literature cited
If data are extracted from this website for secondary analysis resulting in a
publication, the website should be cited as follows:
Shenkar, N.; Gittenberger, A.; Lambert, G.; Rius, M.; Moreira Da Rocha, R.; Swalla,
B.J.; Turon, X. (2015) Ascidiacea World Database. Accessed at
http://www.marinespecies.org/ascidiacea on 2015-03-02
If any data constitutes a substantial proportion of the records used in secondary
analyses (i.e. more than 25% of the data are derived from this source, or the
data are essential to arrive at the conclusion of the analysis), the
editors/managers of the database should be contacted. It may be useful to
contact us directly in case there are additional data that may strengthen the
analysis or there are features of the data that are important to consider but may
not have been apparent from the metadata.
Sumber : http://www.marinespecies.org/ascidiacea/ (Diakses 2 Maret
2015)