School of Natural Sciences, University of California , Merced, CA , USA ; Program in Developmental Biology, Baylor College of Medicine , Houston, TX , USA ; Department of Genetics, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center , Houston, TX , USA.
School of Natural Sciences, University of California , Merced, CA , USA ; Department of Biology, Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA , USA.
PeerJ. 2014 Dec 11;2:e700. doi: 10.7717/peerj.700. eCollection 2014.
Opisthobranch molluscs exhibit fascinating body plans associated with the evolution of shell loss in multiple lineages. Sea hares in particular are interesting because Aplysia californica is a well-studied model organism that offers a large suite of genetic tools. Bursatella leachii is a related tropical sea hare that lacks a shell as an adult and therefore lends itself to comparative analysis with A. californica. We have established an enhanced culturing procedure for B. leachii in husbandry that enabled the study of shell formation and loss in this lineage with respect to A. californica life staging.
后鳃类软体动物表现出与多个谱系中贝壳丧失相关的迷人身体结构。海兔尤其有趣，因为加利福尼亚海兔是一种研究充分的模式生物，提供了大量的遗传工具。无壳海兔是一种相关的热带海兔，成年后没有贝壳，因此适合与加利福尼亚海兔进行比较分析。我们已经建立了一种改进的无壳海兔养殖方法，使我们能够在加利福尼亚海兔的生命分期方面研究这个谱系中的贝壳形成和丧失。
