# Developmental Patterning of the Anterior Neural Plate in a Simple Chordate

> **NIH NIH R01** · PRINCETON UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $351,461

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
The sea squirt Ciona intestinalis is member of the urochordates, the closest living relatives of the
vertebrates. Ciona tadpoles provide a favorable system for studying the evolutionary origins of
key vertebrate innovations such as cranial placodes and neural crest. There are four major
sensory cell types that arise from the neural plate border, which is the source of placodes and
neural crest in vertebrates. The Ciona system is ideally suited to elucidate the gene networks and
developmental mechanisms underlying the specification of all four sensory cell types: hair cells
(head), GnRH-expressing aATENs (trunk), pATENs and BTNs (tail). The detailed understanding
of these cell types should provide new insights into the evolutionary origins and developmental
mechanisms underlying the specification of comparable cell types derived from placodes and
neural crest in vertebrates, particularly placodes. During the preceding funding period we
obtained evidence that the hair cells and aATENs arise from a proto-placodal territory straddling
the anterior border of the presumptive neural tube. The aATENs possess dual chemosensory and
neurosecretory properties, suggesting they represent an ancestral cell type that produced
specialized cell types through a process of “cellular subfunctionalization” during the evolution of
the vertebrates. The pATENs and BTNs possess similarities with derivatives of the neural crest
in vertebrates, such as dorsal root ganglia. There are two over-arching goals of the proposed
study: (i) explore the specification, differentiation, and relatedness of hair cells, aATENs,
pATENs, and BTNs in the Ciona tadpole; and, (ii) explore the process of cellular
subfunctionalization, whereby ancestral sensory cell types in Ciona produce multiple specialized
cell types forming neuronal circuits in vertebrates.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10338051
- **Project number:** 5R01NS076542-10
- **Recipient organization:** PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Michael Steven Levine
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $351,461
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2012-09-01 → 2023-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10338051

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10338051, Developmental Patterning of the Anterior Neural Plate in a Simple Chordate (5R01NS076542-10). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10338051. Licensed CC0.

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