The formation of the intestine at the juvenile stage is raised by the Hox10 gene through the migration of endodermal strand cells in ascidian

Hox cluster genes play crucial roles in the establishment of the body plan along the antero-posterior axis during animal development. Hox genes are expressed in the chordate endodermal tissues, and unraveling functions there is necessary for elucidating the mechanisms of endoderm specification. In the invertebrate chordate Ciona intestinalis, the endodermal tissues are in the premature state at the larval stage, and they form the differentiated digestive tract during metamorphosis. In this study, we showed that a Hox gene Ci-Hox10 is required for the formation of the intestine during metamorphosis. To know the downstream genes that are controlled by Hox10, microarray analysis of Hox10 knock-down embryos was performed. Gene expressions in the tail region of Hox10 knockdown embryos that were injected with Hox10 morpholino (MO) and control embryos of Ciona intestinalis were examined by comparative analysis with two color detection. Dye-swap analysis was carried out.