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Science 13 December 2002:
Vol. 298. no. 5601, p. 2087
DOI: 10.1126/science.298.5601.2087f
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This Week in Science
The sea squirt Ciona intestinalis, an invertebrate chordate that has been extensively studied in embryology, occupies a critical node on the metazoan and chordate phylogenetic trees. Dehal et al. (p. 2157; see the cover and the news story by Pennisi) generated a draft genome sequence and assembled the euchromatic regions of C. intestinalis. Because ascidians like Ciona apparently diverged prior to the genome-scale expansions that occurred in the vertebrate lineage, they may reflect the chordate genome prior to the emergence of vertebrates. Indeed, many of its genes show stronger similarity to invertebrate proteins than to those found in vertebrates, but nearly one-sixth of the Ciona genes possess a vertebrate counterpart. In addition, Ciona-specific genes were identified, as well as curious innovations as seen in the presence of genes involved in cellulose metabolism.
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)
