Yes, Ciona is elusive in Barkley Sound and likes to live south of the
border making them difficult to obtain especially given the new
security measures at the border and the fact that delicate Ciona
doesn't survive very well when shipped. What I've done over the years
is simply work at marine stations that have local populations of
Ciona and do the cellular/molecular expts back in my home lab. You
might consider hooking up with Bill Smith at UC Santa Barbara, not
too far away, as they have lots of Ciona. Plymouth Marine Station is
excellent too as lots of Ciona are grown on plastic sheets in their
SW holding tanks and its a great place to work. MBL too has lots of
Ciona and needless to say is a perfect place to do research on
ascidian embryos!
I dont know of any commercial source of Ciona within Canada.
Remember, the border is now very tricky for getting live organisms
into Canada!!!
Bill
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Dr. W.R. Bates
Department of Biology
Okanagan University College
3333 College Way
Kelowna, BC
Canada V1V 1V7
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