Oocytes of a single individual of Ciona intestinalis (Roscoff, France) were fertilized by a mixture of sperm of two individuals and development was followed microscopically. Embryos were snapfrozen in liquid nitrogen at the appropriate stage and kept at -80°C. Samples at stage 0, 8, 12, 15, 21, 26 were collected from the same fertilzation, while sample from stage 11 was independently collected from a different individual. Total RNA was prepared with the RNA II kit of Magerey Nagel and the quality was checked with the Bioanalyzer, all samples had a RIN value of higher than 9. Strand specific libraries were constructed and the sequencing (50PE) was performed with Illumina HiSeq 2000 technology (BGI, Hong Kong, China). Reads were aligned onto C.robusta genome and considered to reflect the expression of the C.robusta orthologous genes.

Conversion to Aniseed format of data from Yutaka Satou's gene expression profiles of transcription factors and signalling molecule ISH screen (Development. 2004 131:4047-58).

Original annotation :
Gene name :MyoD.
Expression pattern : No signal was detected

Conversion to Aniseed format of data from Yutaka Satou's gene expression profiles of transcription factors and signalling molecule ISH screen (Development. 2004 131:4047-58).

Original annotation :
Gene name :MyoD.
Expression pattern : No distinct zygotic signal was detected

Conversion to Aniseed format of data from Yutaka Satou's gene expression profiles of transcription factors and signalling molecule ISH screen (Development. 2004 131:4047-58).

Original annotation :
Gene name :MyoD.
Expression pattern : No distinct zygotic signal was detected

Vegetal view of a 32-cell stage embryo probed for Ci-MyoD expression.

Vegetal pole view of a 44-cell stage wild type embryo probed for Ci-MRF expression.This picture shows expression in the nuclei of the B7.4 blastomere pair.

Conversion to Aniseed format of data from Yutaka Satou's gene expression profiles of transcription factors and signalling molecule ISH screen (Development. 2004 131:4047-58).

Original annotation :
Gene name :MyoD.
Expression pattern : B7.4, B7.8.
Comment : The expression in the B7.4 is dispersed within cytoplasm and looked weak.

Vegetal pole view of a 64-cell stage wild type embryo probed for Ci-MRF expression. This picture shows expression in the B7.4 blastomere pair and with subsequent divisions an expression of Ci-MRF appears in B7.8 cells.

Vegetal pole view of a 76-cell stage wild type embryo probed for Ci-MRF expression. This picture shows expression in the B7.8, B8.7 and B8.8 cell pairs.

Vegetal view of a 110-cell stage embryo probed for MyoD expression.

Original annotation :
Gene name :MyoD.
Expression pattern : B8.7, B8.8, B8.15, B8.16

Conversion to Aniseed format of data from Yutaka Satou's gene expression profiles of transcription factors and signalling molecule ISH screen (Development. 2004 131:4047-58).

Original annotation :
Gene name :MyoD.
Expression pattern : B8.7, B8.8, B8.15, B8.16

Vegetal view of a 112-cell stage embryo probed for Ci-MyoD expression. Cells where mRNA is first detected are indicated by arrowheads.

Vegetal view of a 110-cell stage wild type embryo probed for Ci-MRF expression. This picture shows expression in B8.8, B8.7, B8.15 and B8.16. A8.16 (arrow) was also detected at this stage in approximately one-third of embryo analyzed. This cell pair has both neural and muscle fates.

Vegetal view of a 110-cell stage wild type embryo probed for Ci-Mdf expression.

Vegetal view of a mid gastrula stage wild type embryo probed for Ci-MRF expression.

Original Annotation : Ci-MRF expression was detected in B8.8, B8.7, B8.15, B8.16 and in A9.31 (column 4 of rowI).

Vegetal view of a mid gastrula stage wild type embryo probed for Ci-MRF expression.

Original Annotation : Ci-MRF expression was detected in B8.8, B8.7, B8.15, B8.16 and in A9.31 (column 4 of rowI).

Vegetative view of a mid gastrula probed for Mrf expression. Mrf expression was detected in B8.8, B8.7, B8.15, B8.16 and in A9.31 (column 4 of neural plate rowI).

Gatrula stage embryo probed for Ci-MyoD expression. Cell division was blocked by cytochalasin D at the 32-cell stage, gene expression profile corresponds to the stage observed. Arrowheads indicate the blastomeres expressing Ci-MyoD.

Vegetal view of a gastrula stage embryo probed for Ci-MyoD expression.

Vegetal view of a mid gastrula stage wild type embryo probed for Ci-MRF expression. This picture shows expression in B8.8, B8.7, B8.15, B8.16 and in A8.16 cells that have neural and muscle fates (arrows).

Conversion to Aniseed format of data from Yutaka Satou's gene expression profiles of transcription factors and signalling molecule ISH screen (Development. 2004 131:4047-58).

Original annotation :
Gene name :MyoD.
Expression pattern : muscle

Vegetal view of a late gastrula probed for Ci-MRF expression. Labels indicate muscle (A9.31) and neural (A9.32) precursors.

Vegetal pole view of a late tailbud stage wild type embryo probed for Ci-MRF expression. This picture shows expression in the rowI/column4 (A9.31, arrowhead on the picture) and in the tail muscles. Numbers indicate any expression over the total number of embryos analysed. Nuclei are labeled with Hoechst (white) to allow the easy identification of individual cells.

Vegetal and lateral views of an early neurula stage wild type embryo probed for Ci-MRF expression. At this stage muscle cells are bounded by epidermis and confined to the posterior-vegetal region of the embryo, only this cells expressed Ci-MRF (A,anterior; P,posterior; Vg,vegetal; An,animal; ep,epidermis).

Conversion to Aniseed format of data from Yutaka Satou's gene expression profiles of transcription factors and signalling molecule ISH screen (Development. 2004 131:4047-58).

Original annotation :
Gene name :MyoD.
Expression pattern : muscle

Dorsal view of a neurula stage embryo probed for Ci-MyoD expression.

Lateral and dorsal views of an initial tailbud probed for Ci-MRF expression. Viewed laterally, muscle cells appears as a mass that fills the tail. Viewed from the dorsal or ventral surfaces, this mass of muscles cells appears "U-shaped" (ep,epidermis; N,notochord).

Conversion to Aniseed format of data from Yutaka Satou's gene expression profiles of transcription factors and signalling molecule ISH screen (Development. 2004 131:4047-58).

Original annotation :
Gene name :MyoD.
Expression pattern : muscle

Dorsal and lateral views of an early tailbud probed for Ci-MRF expression. Viewed laterally, muscle cells appears as a mass that fills the tail. Viewed from the dorsal or ventral surfaces, this mass of muscles cells appears "U-shaped" (ep,epidermis; N,notochord).

Conversion to Aniseed format of data from Yutaka Satou's gene expression profiles of transcription factors and signalling molecule ISH screen (Development. 2004 131:4047-58).

Original annotation :
Gene name :MyoD.
Expression pattern : No distinct zygotic signal was detected

Localization of CiMDF transcripts in 11 hour-old embryos by whole-mount in situ hybridization. Embryos are viewed from lateral and dorsal perspectives (N, notochord; nf, neural fold; ep, epidermis).

Original annotation: CiMDF transcripts were restricted to the two lateral bands of muscle cells on either side of the notochord and did not extend to the epidermal cells of the dorsal, ventral or lateral margins of the developing tail.

Lateral and dorsal view of a mid tailbud probed for Ci-MRF expression. The mass of muscle cells separate at the posterior end to form two bilateral band of muscles (ep,epidermis; N,notochord).

Lateral view of the tail of a WT Ciona robusta mid tailbud embryo co-electroporated with Mrf>unc-76::eGFP (green) and Neurog b-line>unc76::mCherry (magenta), and counterstained with phalloidin..
eGFP signalling is observed in tail muscles.
Original annotation : Embryo with paraxial mesoderm labelled by Mrf>unc-76::eGFP (green), BTN labelled by Neurog b-line>unc- 76::mCherry (magenta) and phalloidin counterstain. Scale bar, 25 μm. Right, cross-sectioned 3D image of same embryo. Only the right side of the embryo was transfected.