User:Breannamoody1/Polycarpa Aurata

Ox-heart Ascidian
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Ascidiacea
Order:	Stolidobranchia
Family:	Styelidae
Genus:	Polycarpa
Species:	aurata
Binomial name
Polycarpa aurata Quoy & Gaimard, 1834

Polycarpa aurata on the ocean floor.

Polycarpa Aurata

Polycarpa 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. 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. 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:

Polycarpa Aurata in Komodo National Park in Indonesia

These 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. 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. 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.

Habitat:

This 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.

Taxonomy

Polycarpa 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. While in the Class Ascidiacea they are also a part of the Order Stolidobranchia which are characterized by the presence of folded pharyngeal baskets.

Pharmacological Uses

Polycarpa aurata selective inhibitors of important biochemical process are isolated by cell biologist and oncologist to produce tumor resistant drugs. 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.