Figure 1

Outline of the budding life cycle in Polyandrocarpa misakiensis (upper) and multiple alignment of TC14s (lower). (A)Adult zooid and buds (b) protruding from the parent body wall that consists of the epidermis (e), atrial epithelium (ae), and intervening coelomic cells (c). g, gonad; i, intestine, p, pharynx; s, stomach. (B)Growing bud. TC14-3 (hatched coelomic space) is expressed evenly along the proximal-distal (P→D) axis of bud. (C)Bud 1 day after detached from the parent. TC14-3 disappears from the proximal coelomic space where cell proliferation begins. (D)2-day-developing bud. Gut and pharyngeal rudiments (gr, pr) appear. (E)1-week-old bud. It becomes a miniature of adult zooid. (F)Amino acid sequences of TC14-1, TC14-2 and TC14-3. N-terminal amino acids (1-20) are signal peptides. Asterisks show positions where amino acids are identical with one another. The elements of secondary structure are shown according to x-ray resolution of TC14-1 [19]. Boxed amino acids at positions 65, 69, 106, 113, and 114 are mainly dealt with in this study.