FBS Colloquia No.296Laboratory for Single-cell Neurobiology

Application for the single-cell transcriptomics for the research on the development and function of ascidian central nervous system

Ascidians belong to the phylum chordate and are the closest animals to the vertebrate. Ascidian larvae show a tadpole-like shape and share a basic body plan of vertebrates, such as the dorsal tubular central nervous system. However, the number of cells consisting of the whole body is about 2600 cells. The small number of cells constituting the entire body and the accumulated knowledge of developmental biology make the ascidian an ideal model organism for analyzing gene expression in individual cells at the whole-genome level and for understanding cell differentiation mechanisms and their physiological functions at the single-cell resolution.
In our laboratory, we focus on the nervous system. The central nervous system of ascidian larvae comprises only 300 cells (177 are neurons, and the remaining is glial cells) and is a good model for studying the mechanism of neuronal differentiation and the physiological functions of neurons at the single-cell resolution. This seminar will present the ongoing research on neural circuits' development and physiological function by applying single-cell transcriptome analysis and future research plans.