Elucidating the factors that shape species distributions has long been a fundamental goal in ecology and evolutionary biology. In spite of significant theoretical advancements, empirical studies of range limits have lagged behind. Specifically, little is known about how the attributes that allow species to expand their ranges and become widespread vary across phylogenies. Here, we studied the a...

Invasive, non-indigenous ascidians have been a significant biofouling problem for the aquaculture industry in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island since the mid-1990’s. The problematic species in Atlantic Canada include Styela clava, Ciona intestinalis, Botryllus schlosseri and Botrylloides violaceus. Newfoundland harbour surveys that we have performed over the past three years revealed the pre...

Ontologies provide an important resource to integrate information. For developmental biology and comparative anatomy studies, ontologies of a species are used to formalize and annotate data that are related to anatomical structures, their lineage and timing of development. Here, we have constructed the first ontology for anatomy and asexual development (blastogenesis) of a bilaterian, the colon...

Eighteen sterols were identified in Botryllus schlosseri, stanols being the main sterols. The sterol composition is in agreement with our recent paper on taxonomic separation of tunicates into three groups. Again we found in invertebrates of the Black Sea sterols with a (22Z)-double bond. This confirms the presence of such sterols in nature. The composition of the phospholipids appeared to be c...

The data described are related to the article entitled "Recurrent phagocytosis-induced apoptosis in the cyclical generation change of the compound ascidian Botryllus schlosseri" (Franchi et al., 2016) [1]. Four apoptosis-related genes, showing high similarity with mammalian Bax (a member of the Bcl-2 protein family), AIF1 (apoptosis-inducing factor-1), PARP1 (poly ADP ribose polymerase-1) and I...

In the colonial tunicate Botryllus schlosseri, a co-dominant trait determines the capacity of adjacent colonies to fuse or reject. An innovative RNA sequencing approach has now identified the gene that predicts the outcomes of this naturally occurring allograft.

Botryllus schlosseri is a colonial ascidian, and the closest relative to vertebrates that can completely regenerate its entire body, including all somatic and germline tissues, using an asexual developmental pathway called blastogenesis. This regenerative potential exhibited by Botryllus and other colonial ascidians does not exist in any other chordate and makes B. schlosseri a promising model ...

The colonial ascidian Botryllus schlosseri continuously regenerates entire bodies in an asexual budding process. The germ line of the newly developing bodies is derived from migrating germ cell precursors, but the signals governing this homing process are unknown. Here we show that germ cell precursors can be prospectively isolated based on expression of aldehyde dehydrogenase and integrin alph...