Selective-plane illumination microscopy has proven to be a powerful imaging technique due
to its unsurpassed acquisition speed and gentle optical sectioning. However, even in the …

INTRODUCTION Within each animal species, embryonic development is highly
reproducible, ensuring the faithful production of a complex organism with precisely arranged …

The quantitative and systematic analysis of embryonic cell dynamics from in vivo 3D+ time
image data sets is a major challenge at the forefront of developmental biology. Despite …

Ascidians (tunicates; sea squirts) are marine animals which provide a source of diverse,
bioactive natural products, and a model for toxicity screenings. Compounds isolated from …

Chordates are divided into three subphyla: Vertebrata, Tunicata, and Cephalochordata.
Phylogenetically, the Cephalochordata, more commonly known as lancelets or amphioxus …

Ciona larvae display a number of behaviors, including negative phototaxis. In negative
phototaxis, the larvae first perform short spontaneous rhythmic casting swims. As larvae are …

Summary β-catenin is a transcriptional cofactor mediating the" canonical" Wnt signaling
pathway, which activates target genes in a complex with TCF (LEF) transcription factors [1] …

In many bilaterian embryos, nuclear β-catenin (nβ-catenin) promotes mesendoderm over
ectoderm lineages. Although this is likely to represent an evolutionary ancient …

Ascidian species of the Phallusia and Ciona genera are distantly related, their last common
ancestor dating several hundred million years ago. Although their genome sequences have …

The ascidian embryo is an ideal system to investigate how cell position is determined during
embryogenesis. Using 3D timelapse imaging and computational methods we analyzed the …