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This volume explores emerging approaches and methods inspired by recent research using ctenophores or placozoans, facilitating the study of these enigmatic species and ancient animal lineages. Practical protocols are integrated with introductory chapters about general biology, summarizing the diversity, evolution, genomics, development, and neurobiology of these organisms. Special chapters outline strategies and applications for culturing, microscopy, physiology, electrical synapses, and bioluminescence, molecular and single-cell biology, transcription factors, as well as gene and protein expression analyses. The book also contains bioinformatics and computational chapters covering peptidomics and epigenomics. Written for the highly successful Methods in Molecular Biology series, chapters include detailed implementation advice that leads to dependable results in the laboratory.
Authoritative and practical, Ctenophores: Methods and Protocols is anideal resource for comparative and experimental biologists and interdisciplinary scientists aiming to decipher fundamental principles of animal organization, origin, and the evolution of biological complexity in general, opening novel avenues for future synthetic biology research.
List of contents
Brief History of Ctenophora.- Ctenophora: Illustrated Guide and Taxonomy.- Brief History of Placozoa.- Stable Laboratory Culture System for the Ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi .- Illustrated Neuroanatomy of Ctenophores: Immunohistochemistry.- Scanning Electron Microscopy of Ctenophores: Illustrative Atlas.- DNA Isolation Long-Read Genomic Sequencing in Ctenophores.- RNA Isolation from Ctenophores.- Gene Expression Patterns in the Ctenophore Pleurobrachia bachei: In Situ Hybridization.- Characterization of the Mitochondrial Proteome in the Ctenophore Mnemiopsis leidyi Using MitoPredictor.- Expression and Functional Analysis of Ctenophore Glutamate Receptor Genes.- Expression, Purification, and Determination of Sensitivity to Calcium Ions of Ctenophore Photoproteins.- Functional Screening of cDNA Expression Library for Novel Ctenophore Photoproteins.- Recording Cilia Activity in Ctenophores.- Electrophysiology of Ctenophore Smooth Muscle.- Gap Junctions in Ctenophora.-Analysis and Visualization of Single-Cell Sequencing Data with Scanpy and MetaCell: A Tutorial.- DNA Methylation in Ctenophores.- Ocean to Tree: Leveraging Single-Molecule RNA-Seq to Repair Genome Gene Models and Improve Phylogenomic Analysis of Gene and Species Evolution.- Parallel Evolution of Transcription Factors in Basal Metazoans.- Long-Term Culturing of Placozoans (Trichoplax and Hoilungia).- Bioinformatic Prohormone Discovery in Basal Metazoans: Insights from Trichoplax.
