Amphioxus, also called lancelet or cephalochordate, is a promising model organism owning to its particularly evolu- tionary position, simple genome content and comparable body plan to that of vertebrates （Holland et aL, 2004; Bertrand and Escriva, 2011）. However, use of amphioxus as a model or- ganism has been limited for many years because of lack of an efficient genomic modification method. Recently, several revolutionary gene targeting methods that could induce directed mutations, insertions and deletions at intended target sites, have been developed （Gaj et al., 2013）.
Epigonichtys and Asymmeron are genera of lancelet.and there is a dispute about their consolidation.Mitochondri...
LI Wei-Ye,WANG Yi-Quan Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Subtropical Wetland Ecosystem Research,School of Life Sciences Xiamen University,Xiamen,China,361005
The expression of four AmphiPax genes in 16 developmental stages and different organs in amphioxus (Branchiostoma belcheri) was investigated, finding those genes expressed throughout amphioxus life with temporal-specific (especially during embryogenesis and metamorphosis) and spatial-specific patterns. This study suggests that duplicated Pax genes in vertebrates might maintain most of their ancestral functions and also expand their expression patterns after the divergence of protochordates and vertebrates.
CHEN Lu1, ZHANG QiuJing1,2, WANG Wei1 & WANG YiQuan1 1Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
