Comments on: Sea urchins use their entire body as an eye

By: DrivethruScientist

DrivethruScientist — Wed, 11 May 2011 14:59:29 +0000

Having just come from the Developmental Biology: Sea Urchin 20 Conference, I can say that there are quite a few teams that are doing work like this in sea urchin. While light-sensing is one of the subgroups of study, there are other labs getting into circadian rhythm. From microarray and transcriptome data they’re finding many analogues to clock and period genes as well as daily rhythmicity in them. They also seem to share a mix of deuterostome and protostome genes in their regulation pathways.

On another note, there’s someone even looking into hormones and neuropeptides in urchins. They seem to express, at different points in development, neuropeptides like gonadotropin-releasing hormone among others.

It’s becoming a very interesting model animal to use!

By: Michael Meadon

Michael Meadon — Wed, 04 May 2011 10:24:31 +0000

This is absurdly wonderful – and a great write-up. Am submitting it to Dawkins’ site.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Tue, 03 May 2011 20:13:02 +0000

Fascinating story. I have always loved echinoderms of all kinds. Next time I’m on a night dive, I’ll test this concept and see if they really do move away from light.

By: Lucas

Lucas — Tue, 03 May 2011 10:35:38 +0000

Hi Ed, fascinating news and great story - as always! This maybe worth to mention: earlier this year a similar (essentially the same) story was published in Roy Proc Soc. Same approach, same results, different sea urchin. Cheers!

By: Brian Too

Brian Too — Tue, 03 May 2011 00:17:40 +0000

Eye am the mighty all-seaing urchin, fear me!!

Sidle sidle sidle.

By: Matt B.

Matt B. — Mon, 02 May 2011 22:59:53 +0000

Ed, since text can be attached to the pictures in these slide shows, I wonder if there can be a text slide without a picture. If so, you wouldn’t be limited to using slide shows only when there are pictures.

By: Julia

Julia — Mon, 02 May 2011 19:29:22 +0000

A great example of nature’s craziness. One small thing though, I found a typo:

“Through this network, the sea urchin *detects can react* to light, which it spots with its hundreds of feet.”