Serial repetition of cilia pairs along the tail surface of an ascidian larva

Abstract

Regularly spaced cilia pairs were found in two rows immediately opposite to each other mid-dorsally and mid-ventrally along the larval tail surface of the ascidian protochordate Ciona intestinalis. There were approximately ten such equidistantly placed dorsal-ventral sets embedded in the matrix of the extracellular larval test which forms the flattened vertical tail fin. These immotile cilia originate from pairs of cell bodies in mid-dorsal and mid-ventral peripheral nerves running beneath the tail epidermis. The cilia and neural cell bodies were visualized by immunocytochemical staining with anti-tubulin antibodies; their nature was confirmed by ultrastructural examination. This pattern of cilia and neural cell body placement is conceivably related to the segmentation found in vertebrates.