| Grant number: | 19/06927-5 |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships abroad - Research |
| Start date: | September 01, 2019 |
| End date: | August 31, 2020 |
| Field of knowledge: | Biological Sciences - Morphology - Embryology |
| Principal Investigator: | Federico David Brown Almeida |
| Grantee: | Federico David Brown Almeida |
| Host Investigator: | Stefano Tiozzo |
| Host Institution: | Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil |
| Institution abroad: | Laboratoire de Biologie du Développement de Villefranche-sur-Mer (LBDV), France |
| Associated research grant: | 15/50164-5 - Stem cells, regeneration, and the evolution of coloniality in ascidians, AP.JP |
Abstract For nearly sixty years, colonial ascidians (mainly Botryllus schlosseri) have been used as laboratory models to study chordate origins, including the evolution of the immune system and allorecognition, as well as different aspects of colonial animal biology, including asexual reproduction, budding (i.e. blastogenesis), regeneration, or adult somatic and germline stem cell transmission and parasitism. Despite the vast amount of developmental biology research in B. schlosseri, protocols for transgenesis and mutagenesis have fallen short hampering studies of gene regulation and function. Colonial ascidians have internal fertilization and brood their embryos impeding easy access to the eggs or 1-cell embryo for electroporation and microinjection. For this proposal, I plan to generate a protocol for transgenesis in colonial ascidians by: (i) microinjection of gene construct directly into colony eggs or 1-cell brooding embryos, and (ii) electroporation of circulatory germline stem cells in colony extracts; and I plan to generate knockout colonial ascidian mutant lines by: (iii) a self-fertilization mutant screen, (iv) an ENU or radiation based forward genetic screen, or (iv) CRISPR for gene targeted knockouts. Future research and new discoveries in developmental biology using colonial ascidians will directly benefit from technical breakthroughs outlined in this proposal. To our knowledge, this is the first attempt to generate stable transgenic and mutant lines for any colonial animal, and the Tiozzo laboratory is currently at the forefront of developing these tools. (AU) | |
| News published in Agência FAPESP Newsletter about the scholarship: | |
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