Botryllid tunicates: Culture techniques and experimental procedures

Botryllid tunicates have become increasingly important as model experimental organisms in a variety of biological and ecological fields, including invasion ecology. This paper summarizes existing botryllid culture methods and offers new ones for culturing Botryllus schlosseri (golden star tunicate) and Botrylloides violaceus (violet tunicate) under laboratory conditions. Techniques for maintaining adult colonies, obtaining larvae, and establishing juvenile cultures are presented. Considerations for designing laboratory experiments using botryllid tunicates are discussed. Key words : Botrylloides , Botryllus , culture techniques, golden star tunicate, violet tunicate Introduction Botryllid tunicates have become increasingly important as model experimental organisms in a variety of biological fields such as immunology, physiology, ecology, genetics, developmental biology, evolutionary biology, and aging (e.g., Boyd et al. 1986; Rinkevich and Shapira 1998; Manni et al. 2007 and references therein). Golden star tunicate