Elsevier

Developmental Biology

Volume 24, Issue 3, March 1971, Pages 379-391
Developmental Biology

Self- and cross-fertilization in the compound ascidianBotryllus schlosseri

https://doi.org/10.1016/0012-1606(71)90087-XGet rights and content

Abstract

In the viviparous colonies of the ascidianBotryllus schlosseri, which are protogynous hermaphrodite, selfing can be prevented by maintaining a difference of 2–3 days between the sexual cycles of the crossing colonies. The same expedient, applied to two pieces of single colonies, allows a successful selfing. Self- and cross-fertilization have been inferred from the phenotypes of the offspring yielded by colonies marked by different pigmentation genes.

A comparative quantitative analysis of the sets of offspring, obtained by self- and cross-fertilization from colonies collected in the field and colonies raised in the laboratory, has given preliminary indications about the role played by environmental and genetic factors in the control of embryonic development, larval metamorphosis, survival and growth of newly founded colonies.

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    Orange pigment cells are clearly recognisable in oozooids, whereas the blue and whitish pigment cells make their appearance during larval metamorphosis but require several blastogenetic generations before their full expression. Pigmentation inheritance was used to study the efficiency of cross and self-fertilisation in B. schlosseri (Sabbadin, 1971) and germ cell recycling in the colony (Sabbadin and Zaniolo, 1979). Recently, pigment cells were analysed in the colonial ascidian Ecteinascidia turbinata, and a migratory cell population resembling neural crest cells was described (Jeffery et al., 2004).

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This research was supported by a grant from the “Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche,” Italy.

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