TABLE 1:
Examples of contributions from marine model organisms.
| Model species or group | Key biological features and breakthroughs | Awards | Key references |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sea urchin (Arbacia punctulata, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus,a Lytechinus variegatus, Paracentrotus lividus) | • Rapid, synchronous development and “biochemical” quantities of the easy-to-handle sea urchin embryos make them a key model for cell and developmental biology. | 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: identification of the key mitotic protein cyclin | Dorée and Hunt, 2002; Davidson, 2009 |
| • Circa 1900, Boveri proposed the chromosome theory of inheritance and discovered centrosomes in sea urchins. | |||
| • Important models for studying mechanisms of cell cycle and transcriptional regulation. | |||
| Starfish (e.g., Patiria pectinifera, Patiria miniataa, Marthasterias glacialis) | • Concept of “maturation (M-phase) promoting factor” was established by cytoplasmic transfer experiments in amphibian and starfish oocytes, providing the foundation for much of cell cycle research. | Kanatani et al., 1969; Kishimoto and Kanatani, 1976 | |
| • Starfish were among the first organisms in which the meiosis-inducing hormone was identified. | |||
| Clam (Spisula solidissima and other bivalve mollusks, e.g., mussel, oyster) | • Extremely large number of oocytes allows establishment of cell-free systems that recapitulate cell cycle transitions, which has led to significant advances in the understanding of the cell cycle and translational control. | 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: cyclins | Sudakin et al., 1995 |
| 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry: discovery of ubiquitin-mediated protein degradation system | |||
| Sea hares/slugs (Aplysia californicaa, other Aplysia species) | • The nervous system is composed of a small number of large cells, many of which are invariant and identifiable, rendering sea slugs an ideal model to understand the physiological basis of learning and memory. | 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: discoveries concerning signal transduction in the nervous system | Carew and Kandel, 1973 |
| Squid (Loligo spp.) | • Squids feature a giant axon (up to 1 mm in diameter) in which voltage clamp electrodes can be inserted, allowing electrophysiology studies. | 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: discovery of the ionic mechanism of the action potential | Vale et al., 1985; Schwiening, 2012 |
| • Observations of axonal transport led to the discovery of kinesin, the first microtubule motor protein. | |||
| Sea squirts (Ciona intestinalisa, Ciona savigny,a Phallusia mammillataa, Halocynthia roretzia, Botryllus schlosseria, Styela partita) | • Owing to their copious gametes and easy culture methods, sea squirts (ascidians) are a historical model for basic cell and developmental biology. | Nishida and Sawada, 2001; Brozovic et al., 2016 | |
| • In 1905, observations of the reorganization and partitioning of the pigmented myoplasm led Conklin to propose the concept of maternal determinants and the role of asymmetric division in specifying cell fates. | |||
| Hydrozoan jellyfish (Aequorea victoria, Clytia hemisphaerica) | • Hydrozoans have been used to study bioluminescence and for traditional experimental embryology. | 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry: discovery of GFP and the intracellular calcium sensor aequorin | Zimmer, 2009 |
| • Laboratory model hydrozoans have provided evidence for the evolutionarily ancient and conserved roles of signaling pathways in embryo polarity, development, and oocyte maturation. | |||
| Ragworm (Platynereis dumerilii) | • This organism has a short generation time and synchronous and stereotypic development of thousands of transparent embryos. | Tosches et al., 2014 | |
| • Research has addressed diverse questions in development, evolution, and neurobiology concerning phototaxis, introns, microRNA, the control of diel vertical migration via melatonin, and nervous system cell types. |
This table is far from exhaustive and omits many laboratory models with huge potential such as the amphipod crustacean Parhyale hawaiensis, the larvacean Oikopleura dioica, and important fish models such as medaka (Oryzias latipes) and puffer fish (Takifugu rubripes).
aGenome available publicly in January 2016.