• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.567-572
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• 2010

This study examined the antidiabetic and antihyperlipidemic activities of an ascidian (Halocynthia roretzi) in rats in vivo. Rats were fed on experimental diet including dried ascidian powder (200 mg/kg body weight) for 4 weeks, and then the triglyceride and total cholesterol levels in blood were analyzed. On the ascidian tunic powder diet, the triglyceride level decreased by more than 20.9% and the total cholesterol content decreased by more than 24.4%. In comparison, the triglyceride and total cholesterol level in the blood of rats fed ascidian meat powder decreased only slightly. Therefore, the ascidian tunic powder might be a healthy food with antidiabetic and antihyperlipidemic effects.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.474-478
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• 2003

The effects of dietary fiber isolated from ascidian (Halocynthia roretzi) tunic on the changes of weight, total gut transit time, serum cholesterol and glucose level were investigated in rats. Twenty four male rats were divided into 4 groups and were fed a control diet and three fiber supplemented diets with 5,10 and 20% of ascidian insoluble cellulose for 4 weeks, respectively. Food intake was not affected by the supplemented diet of ascidian cellulose but the body weight gain and food efficiency ratio were reduced in proportion to a feeding amount of ascidian cellulose. The fecal output and fecal water content were increased, gut transit time was shortened, and length of gut was elongated in all dietary fiber groups. Serum cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, neutral lipid, phospho-lipid and serum glucose concentrations were lowered and HDL-cholesterol was increased in rats fed the ascidian insoluble cellulose diet in proportion to a feeding amount of ascidian cellulose.

• Journal of fish pathology
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.229-237
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• 2009

The causative agent for the tunic softness syndrome of the cultured ascidian Halocynthia roretzi from Jan 1999 to Feb 2009 was identified using virus isolation and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The pathogenicity of the isolated virus MABV UR-1 strain was determined by experimental infection trials. The cytopathic effects was observed in CHSE-214 cell line at a level 5.1% (4/78) in normal ascidian and 1.8% in abnormal ascidian showing tunic softness syndrome signs. MABV gene was detected in 16.8% (18/107) of normal and 13.1% (5/38) of abnormal organisms by PCR. The ratio of MABV isolation and gene detection was similar level in normal and soft tunic diseased ascidian. Based on the VP2/NS junction region sequences, eight strains of virus isolated from ascidian, were included in the same genogroup with MABV which is originally isolated in wide ranges of marine fish and shellfish species. The UR-1 strain caused 60% mortality (36.5% mortality in control group) by immersion infection and 37% mortality (same mortality in control group) in injection infection indicating no significant differences in infected and control groups. These results suggest that ascidian can act as reservoir of the MABV, and this virus is not directly related with the ascidian mortality.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.371-378
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• 2012

Notch signaling plays fundamental roles in various animal development. It has been suggested that Hr-Notch, a Notch homologue in the ascidian Halocynthia roretzi, is involved in the formation of peripheral neurons by suppressing the neural fates and promoting the epidermal differentiation. However, roles of Notch signaling remain controversial in the formation of nervous system in ascidian embryos. To precisely investigate functions of Notch signaling, we have isolated and characterized Hr-Numb, a Numb homologue which is a negative regulator of Notch signaling, in H. roretzi. Maternal expression of Hr-Numb mRNAs was detected in egg cytoplasm and the transcripts were inherited by the animal blastomeres. Its zygotic expression became evident by the early neurula stage and the transcripts were detected in dorsal neural precursor cells. Suppression of Hr-Numb function by an antisense morpholino oligonucleotide resulted in larvae with defect in brain vesicle and palps formation. Similar results have been obtained by overexpression of the constitutively activated Hr-Notch forms. Therefore, these results suggest that Hr-Numb is involved in Notch signaling during ascidian embryogenesis.

• Development and Reproduction
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.467-473
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• 2017

Ascidian embryos have become an important model for embryological studies, offering a simple example for mechanisms of cytoplasmic components segregation. It is a well-known example that the asymmetric segregation of mitochondria into muscle lineage cells occurs during ascidian embryogenesis. However, it is still unclear which signaling pathway is involved in this process. To obtain molecular markers for studying mechanisms involved in the asymmetric distribution of mitochondria, we have produced monoclonal antibodies, Mito-1, Mito-2 and Mito-3, that specifically recognize mitochondria-rich cytoplasm in cells of the ascidian Halocynthia roretzi embryos. These antibodies stained cytoplasm like reticular structure in epidermis cells, except for nuclei, at the early tailbud stage. Similar pattern was observed in vital staining of mitochondria with DiOC2, a fluorescent probe of mitochondria. Immunostaining with these antibodies showed that mitochondria are evenly distributed in the animal hemisphere blastomeres at cleavage stages, whereas not in the vegetal hemisphere blastomeres. Mitochondria were transferred to the presumptive muscle and nerve cord lineage cells of the marginal zone in the vegetal hemisphere more than to the presumptive mesenchyme, notochord and endoderm lineage of the central zone. Therefore, it is suggested that these antibodies will be useful markers for studying mechanisms involved in the polarized distribution of mitochondria during ascidian embryogenesis.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.910-915
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• 1996

Ascidian muscle was blackened during the frozen storage, so the prevention against blackening was investigated. Low storage temperature and packaging in polyethylene bags delayed the blackening of ascidian muscle during the frozen storage. The blackening was prevented by dipping for $3{\sim}5$ minutes in 3% brine solution containing 0.3% citric acid, packaging in the polyethylene bag, freezing at $-45^{\circ}C$ for 5 hours and storing at $-20^{\circ}C$. Under this condition, the color and the quality of frozen ascidian muscle were nearly not changed for 200 days.

• Korean Journal of Food Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.1021-1025
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• 1996

The experiments were carried out to find how the processing of ascidian (Halocynthia roretzi) was affected by the frozen storage. The quality of ascidian which takes the shell-on was changed quickly in the frozen storage. The causes of the change were as follows: 1. the damage caused by the ice crystal in the muscle, 2. a lot of drips after thawing, 3. the discoloration of the muscle after thawing. On the contrary, the quality of ascidian which takes the shell-off was even better in color, texture, yield and drips after 60 days of the frozen storage. But the muscle was blackened after that.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.761-769
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• 1995

About 2.1g of pale yellow flavor concentrate was obtained from 10kg of chopped fresh ascidians through a Likens-Nickerson steam distilllation/solvent extraction. These concentrates could be fractionated to neutral $(91.5\%),\;basic\;(1.0\%),\;phenolic\;(3.2\%),\;and\;acidic\;(4.3\%)$ fractions. Total 65 volatile compounds were identified from those concentrates. The neutral fraction was representative flavor fraction which showed a similar flavor of total steam distillates of ascidian. The major compounds $(38.2\%\;of\;neutral\;fraction)$ were identified as carbon atoms 8 to 10 of alcohols. Among these volatile alcohols, 1-octanol, 2,7-decadien-1-o1, 3-octen-l-01, 7-decen-l-ol, and l-decanol were the dominent compounds found in neutral fraction. But the basic, phenolic, and acidic fractions differs from ascidian steam distillates flavor.

• Animal cells and systems
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.221-225
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• 2003

The tadpole larva of the ascidian Halocynthia roretzi has two sensory pigment cells in its brain vesicle. To elucidate the temporal requirement for FGF signaling in formation of the pigment cells, embryos were treated with an FGF receptor 1 inhibitor, SU5402, or an MEK inhibitor, U0126 during various embryonic stages. In the present study, it is shown that the embryos treated with SU5402 from the 16-cell stage to the early gastrula stage do not form pigment cells, whereas those treated after the early gastrula stage form pigment cells. In pigment cell formation, embryos suddenly exhibited the sensitivity to SU5402 only for 1 h at the neural plate stage(-4 h after the beginning of gastrulation). When U0126 treatment was carried out at various stages between the 8-cell and late neurula stages, the embryos scarcely formed pigment cells. Pigment cell formation occurred when the embryos were placed in U0126 at early tail bud stage. These results indicate that FGF signaling is involved in pigment cell formation at two separate processes during ascidian embryogenesis, whereas more prolonged period is required for MEK signaling.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.13-20
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• 1978

Changes of free amino acids, nucleotides and their related compounds as taste compounds during sun drying of ascidian Cynthia roretzi, were analyzed by amino acid autoanalyzer and high speed liquid chromatography. In fresh ascidian, the results showed that 5'-UMP $(12.1\;{\mu}mole/g)$ was dominant and the content of cytosine, 2', 3'-CMP, 2', 3'-GMP, hypoxanhtine, 5'-AMP,5'-IMP were 5.8, 3.4, 3.1, 2,3, 1.7 and $1.3\;{\mu}mole/g$ ondry base respectively. 5'-IMP, 2', 3'-CMP and 2', 3'-GMP tended to degrade slowly and 5'-AMP, cytosine and 5'-UMP were decreased rapidly while hypoxanthine were increased remarkably during the sun drying. In dried ascidian, the content of hypoxanthine was the highest, 7.2 mole/g on dry base, whereas that of 5'-AMP $(0.5\;{\mu}mole/g)$) and 5'-IMP $(0.9\;{\mu}mole/g)$ were lower. Glutamic acid, alanine and serine were dominant amino acid in the fresh extracts, having 22.4% (611.3mg%, on dry qase), 19.8% (540.5mg%) and 14.8% (402.8mg%) of the total amino acid content respectively. The content of tyrosine, histidine, lysine, methionine, isoleucine and valine were low, and proline, phenylalanine were detected in trace amount. The free amino acid were not changed in composition but the increase of total free amino acid was approximately 116.8mg% during sun drying. In sun dried ascidian, glutamic acid (691.0mg, on dry base), alanine (641.3mg%), serine (469.5mg%), threonine (234.8mg%) and glycine (206.3mg%) were dominant amino acid. It is believed that glutamic acid, serine, alanine, threonine, glycine and hypoxanthine play an important role as taste compounds in sun dried ascidian.