Motoyuki Tsuda

..The ascidian visual cycle is composed of two cellular compartments, the photoreceptors and the brain vesicle, but some photoreceptor cells also contain visual cycle proteins...

....

..Since the larval central nervous system in Ciona is comprised of only about 100 neurons, learning behavior in ascidian larvae should provide insights for a minimal mechanism of memory in vertebrates...

..These are the first published experimental results that permit a functional role in ascidian larval behavior to be assigned to the sensory organs...

..These results suggest that different types of central neurons share a common transcriptional activation mechanism that is different from that of papillar neurons...

..The present data suggest that isomerization of all-trans-retinoid to 11-cis-retinoid occurs in the brain vesicle and visceral ganglion of a primitive chordate...

..Our results suggest that glutamatergic neurotransmission plays a major role in sensory systems and in the integration of the sensory inputs of the ascidian larva...

..Expression patterns of Ci-GnRHR1 and Ci-GnRHR2 suggest that a GnRH signaling system is involved in regulation of neuronal and reproductive processes as well as in other physiological functions in ascidians...

..The nonpigmented ocellus might relate to later developmental or physiological events, such as metamorphosis, because Ci-opsin1 immunoreactivity appears in the late larval stage and becomes intense just before the onset of metamorphosis...

..These promoters can be a powerful tool for studying molecular mechanisms of neuronal development as well as neuron networks and functions in ascidians...

..These are the first results showing the knockdown of an ascidian gene and the elucidation of that gene's role in ascidian larval behaviour...

..The larval visual cycle seems to use Ci-opsin3 as a photo-isomerase. Our results also suggest that the RPE65-dependent visual cycle is used in the adult photoreceptors of a primitive chordate...

..Comparative studies on photoreceptor systems between ascidians and vertebrates provide us clues to reconstructing the evolutionary pathway leading to the lateral and median eyes of vertebrates...

..The colocalization of visual cycle proteins in the photoreceptor cells suggest that ascidian visual cycle takes place in a photoreceptor cell as seen in the cephalopod visual cycle...

..Our results suggest a possible involvement of HrGalpha(n) in the signaling system regulates the cell fate during the embryogenesis of the ascidian...

..The simple CPG of the ascidian larva may represent the ancestral state of the vertebrate motor system...

..These results suggest the validity of our computational prediction of cis-regulatory elements. Thus, bioinformatics can help identify cis-regulatory elements involved in chordate development...

..All three structures were synaptotagmin-positive. Movement of the statocyte would be detected by these three structures and thus would be responsible for the gravitational orientation...

..intestinalis. Since CiGalpha(i1) is expressed in the ocellus, CiGalpha(i1) may mediate signals from Ci-opsin1, a visual pigment of the ocellus photoreceptor cells...

..These results suggest that the visual and beta-arrestin genes were generated by the duplication of the prototypical arrestin gene like Ci-arr in the early evolution of vertebrates...

..D is reduced by about half the transformation from Rh to Acid-Meta. This large reduction was interpreted in terms of the helix opening of the Rh structure...

..01 angstroms accuracy during the torsion motion around the double bond with 1-fs time resolution...

..Octopus t-Acid Metarhodopsin can activate an endogenous octopus G-protein in the dark and this activity is reduced by irradiation with orange light which photoregenerates t-Acid Metarhodopsin back to the initial species, t-rhodopsin...

..The volume changes of the subsequent reaction steps were rather small. These results are compared with the structural changes of the chromophore, peptide backbone, and water molecules within the membrane helixes reported previously...

....

..Although the role of pigmentation in the ocellus of C. savignyi is similar to that in vertebrate visual systems, our results demonstrate a novel use of melanin in geotactic behavior...

..Our findings help establish the link between centrosome function, tissue architecture and transcriptional control in the pathogenesis of cystic kidney disease, retinal degeneration, and central nervous system development...

..These results strongly suggest the presence of 11-cis and all-trans 3,4-didehydroretinal in melanophores of the tadpole tail fin, which probably function as the chromophore of photoreceptive molecules...

..Our studies emphasize the central role of ciliary dysfunction in the pathogenesis of SLSN...