Path followed:
1. Is the fault in the components that perform any physical action?
Answer: No
2. Is the faulty component part of the mechanism’s body?
Answer: Yes
3. Is the faulty component in the structure of the mechanism?
Answer: Yes
4. Does the fault appear in components that provide rigidity to the mechanism?
Answer: No
5. Is the faulty component responsible for supporting other components?
Answer: Yes
6. Is the fault in critical components of the mechanism?
Answer: No
7. Is the system completely destroyed?
Answer: Yes
17) Colonial Sea Squirt, Botrylloides leachi
Colonial Sea Squirts can be found in the Atlantic Ocean from Norway to the Mediterranean. They can have 8 to 16 branched tentacles and each zooid can reach up to 3 millimeters long (Olwen). They have the ability of regenerating their whole body from a tiny blood vessel.
Colonial Sea Squirts can regenerate their entire body systemically in blood vessels. Buds are formed from pluripotent blood cells within the vasculature fragments of the blood vessel (Rinkevich et al.). Changes surrounding the bud formed a blastula like structure that would help house the dividing cells. The pluripotent blood cells will proliferate to increase the size of the bud. After a couple days two elongated double-walled folds would fold into the thick vesicle wall that had been formed and create gill slits. They would also extend inward dividing the structure into 3 chambers creating the central pharyngeal and a pair of atrial chambers (Rinkevich et al.). The bud would continue to grow and regenerate internal organs for the sea squirt. Retinoic acid (RA) has been found to regulate the development of the body by regulating cell differentiation. If RA is inhibited or interfered the body will not regenerate or will cause bud malformations (Rinkevich et al.).
Olwen Ager. Botrylloidesleachii. A colonial sea squirt. Marine Life Information Network: Biology and Sensitivity Key Information Sub programme. 2008. Plymouth: Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom. Web. 23 Nov. 2014.
http://www.marlin.ac.uk/speciesinformation.php?speciesID=2790
Rinkevich, Yuval, Guy Paz, Baruch Rinkevich, and Ram Reshef. “Systemic Bud Induction and Retinoic Acid Signaling Underlie Whole Body Regeneration in the Urochordate Botrylloides Leachi.” PLOS Biology. PLOS, 6 Mar. 2007. Web. 25 Nov. 2014.
http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.0050071
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