Year-round reproduction and induced spawning of Chinese amphioxus, Branchiostoma belcheri, in laboratory.

Amphioxus is a best candidate for studying the evolutionary and developmental mechanisms of vertebrates, because of its vertebrate-like but much simpler morphology, embryonic development and genome structure. Producing live amphioxus embryos throughout the year is an ideal for comparative evolution and developmental studies. However, all amphioxus species have distinct breeding seasons in the wild and laboratory. We recently found that Chinese amphioxus B. belcheri could reproduce repeatedly beyond its natural breeding season when reared under proper conditions. In this study, we were able to extend further and produce embryos throughout the year from October 2011 to October 2012. We found all examined animals had spawned repeatedly during the examined period. In addition, both lancelets B. belcheri and B. japonicum could be induced to spawn by heat-shock method, although the induced spawning efficiency was not as high as that observed in the European lancelet. In general, we have succeeded in producing B. belcheri embryos almost daily throughout the year. This advancement will provide essential embryonic material for evolutionary and developmental studies, and have great implications for the cultivation and spawning induction of other amphioxus species.