Monoclonal antibody specific to urochordate Botryllus schlosseri pyloric gland.

We describe here the development of a new hybridoma cell line, CF12F6, that produces a specific antibody to Botryllus schlosseri (a colonial tunicate). The monoclonal antibody was isotyped as IgG1 (by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay), and the cellular localization of the antigenic epitope that reacts specifically with CF12F6 was confined to the cells of the pyloric gland of the zooid (by immunohistochemistry). The pyloric gland participates in osmoregulation, digestion, glycogen storage, and various other secretion functions that will be studied further by the use of monoclonal antibody CF12F6, the first in botryllid ascidians that recognizes cells of a whole, single organ.