No Strain of C. intestinalis No laboratory strain of C. intestinalis has been maintained although ciona culture for genetics is carried out at least by three groups* (and another in French). Establishment of inbred strain is diffilcult because of inbreeding depression and no person who has skill to breed Ciona. It is good to proceed 1) a large scale screening to establish an inbred strain and 2) random mating to establish closed colonies. Any strains are required for genetics especially because of highly polymorphisms in Ciona. Groups to proceed ascidian genetics using Ciona intestinalis Dr. N. Satoh and his collegues, Kyoto Univ., Japan A post-doc, Dr. Sasakura, and the others has established an insertinal mutagenesis with a culture system. The culture system is absolutely closed system, which is isolated from sea. Dr. P. Sordino and his collegues, Stazione Zoologica di Napoli., Italy They have established culture system and mutagenesis with ENU [15]. Dr. W.C. Smith and his collegues, UCSB, USA They can culture C. intestinalis, although they mainly use C. savignyi. Back to previous page Back to home