Ox-heart Ascidian | |
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Scientific classification | |
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Species: | aurata
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Binomial name | |
Polycarpa aurata Quoy & Gaimard, 1834
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![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Sea_Squirts_%28Polycarpa_aurata%29_%288474256286%29.jpg/220px-Sea_Squirts_%28Polycarpa_aurata%29_%288474256286%29.jpg)
Polycarpa Aurata
editPolycarpa aurata, also known by the names of Ox-heart Ascidian and the ink-spot sea squirt is a sea squirt located in the eastern Indian Ocean and western, tropical Pacific, were first described by French scientist Quoy and Gaimard in 1834.[2] They have urn shaped bodies with two siphons on the top and usually are covered in white, purple, and orange patches while the inside may be yellow and orange.[3] They are bilaterally symmetrical, and benthic, usually small in size, and cannot live at great depths in the ocean. Chemicals produced by P. aurata have also shown great promise in the pharmaceutical industry and in biological research.
Anatomy:
editThese creatures have bilateral symmetry and usually grow to around 5 to 15 cm in size. They are coelomates but once out of the larval stage the body cavity is then lost. Tunicates are filter feeders, drawing water into their pharynx and body cavity through their oral siphon, and expelling water through their atrial siphon.[5] This species feeds by filtering out phytoplankton, and bacteria or food particles that may be found in the water. They sometimes have a symbiotic relationship with hydroids and algae that grow on the outside of them.[6] Adults are sessile and benthic and have a very simple nervous system with ganglion forming some nerve tissue. These organisms are hermaphroditic and usually have around one ovary and one testis while reproducing externally.[7]
Habitat:
editThis species is found in the eastern Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean near the tropics, including coastal Philippines, Indonesia and northern Australia. They can be found from 5 m to 50 m depth.[8]
Taxonomy
editPolycarpa aurata is a metazoan deuterostome with bilateral symmetry. They are a part of the subphylum Tunicata which differ from vertebrate Chordata animals by the loss of their myomeric segmentation and seriation of gill slits.[9] While in the Class Ascidiacea they are also a part of the Order Stolidobranchia which are characterized by the presence of folded pharyngeal baskets.[10]
Pharmacological Uses
editPolycarpa aurata selective inhibitors of important biochemical process are isolated by cell biologist and oncologist to produce tumor resistant drugs. [11] A study into the metabolic contents lead to the isolation of two alkaloids, polyaurines 1A and B2, and substituted derivative of benzoyl 3 and 4. These polyaurines are helping study mammalian cell growth, and may be used to lower the viability of the blood dwelling platyhelminthes Schistosoma mansoni. Scientist believe these polyaurines could represent an interesting bioactive natural molecule that has not been investigated or studied. [12]
Sources
edit- ^ Dupont, Bernard (2009). Sea Squirts (Polycarpa Aurata). Tanjung, Bunaken Island, Sulawesi, INDONESIA: Flickr.com.
- ^ Sanamyan, Karen (2007/12/05). "Polycarpa aurata (Quoy & Gaimard, 1834)". World Register of Marine Species.
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(help)CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Polycarpa aurata (Quoy & Gaimard, 1834)". Atlas of Living Australia.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Hobgood, Nick (10 October 2006). "Tunicate komodo". Wikimedia Commons.
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(help) - ^ Cole, Linda (June 2018). "Tunicates—Not So Spineless Invertebrates". Smithsonian Ocean.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Barnes, Ruppert,Fox, Robert D, Richard S, Edward E (2004). Invertebrate Zoolgy 7th edition. Cengage Learning. pp. 940–956.
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Holt and Iudica, Jack and Carlos (02/06/2013). "SYNOPTIC DESCRIPTION OF THE PHYLUM TUNICATA". Diversity Of Life.
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: Check date values in:|date=
(help)CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Polycarpa aurata". Atlas of Living Australia.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Onani, T (April 2018). "The evolutionary origin of chordate segmentation: revisiting the enterocoel theory". Theory BioSci. 137.
- ^ "STOLIDOBRANCHIA". Atlas of Living Australia.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Popov, A. M.; Novikov, V. L.; Radchenko, O. S.; Elyakov, G. B. (2002). "[No title found]". Doklady Biochemistry and Biophysics. 385 (1/6): 213–218. doi:10.1023/A:1019915507568.
- ^ Casertano, M (May 2019). "Chemical Investigation of the Indonesian Tunicate Polycarpa aurata and Evaluation of the Effects Against Schistosoma mansoni of the Novel Alkaloids Polyaurines A and B". Marine Drugs. 17.