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The increase of pollutants in the oceans as well as the global change around the world is having a negative impact on the biodiversity of living organisms. There is a crescent alarm in the scientific community for the different types of pollution (biological, chemical and physical) and for the changes occurring at the level of species and communities. Many parameters endangering marine wildlife contribute to create an unhealthy marine environment that induces reproductive disorders that, in turn, may influence even the survival of marine wildlife.

Ascidians, or sea squirts, are sessile marine invertebrates commonly found throughout the world. They have been largely used as models for developmental biology since the last century [1]. The advantage of using ascidians for studies of reproduction and development is their large number of oocytes, their synchronous arrest in the metaphase of the first meiotic division, the rapid embryo development that generates swimming larvae around 18-24 hr post-fertilization, and the small number of cells and few tissues in the adult. Ciona intestinalis is among the most studied ascidian, and its genome is well established since from 2003 [2].