Echinoderm biology and ecology

This study describes the embryonic development of the Mediterranean starfish Hacelia attenuata, showing it follows a canonical pattern with temperature-dependent developmental rates.

This study shows how red sea urchins maintain metabolic resilience in barren habitats and rapidly recover when food returns, influencing ecosystem dynamics through compensatory feeding and metabolic flexibility.

This study shows sea stars adjust tube foot adhesion time based on body load and orientation to adapt locomotion without a central nervous system.

This study investigates the temperature tolerance of sunflower star early life stages, finding they can withstand current and near-future warming conditions.

This paper reports protocols to rear the sea star Patiria miniata through sexual maturity in the lab, enabling stable transgenic and mutant lines.

This study investigates the relationship between mechanical stress and ultrastructure in the endoskeleton of Asterias rubens, finding that adaptation to mechanical loads is common in Deuterostomia but material remodeling is specific to vertebrates.

This study tests vinegar injections as a method to control crown-of-thorns starfish during spawning, finding no impact on spawning behavior.

The paper uses scRNA-seq to analyze regenerating intestine in holothurians, identifying cell clusters and supporting the pluripotency of the coelomic epithelium.

This study develops a cryopreservation protocol for T. gratilla embryos using 1M Me2SO and a cooling rate of 9.7°C/min, achieving 85.5% survival and 50.8% maturation to the 4-arm echinopluteus stage.

This study examines how temperature affects immune cell development and body length in purple sea urchin larvae, finding that elevated temperatures lead to larger larvae with more pigment cells.

The paper presents a model of decentralized vision in sea urchins that explains how light is processed to produce oriented movement.

This study reports the genome of Chiridota heheva, a deep-sea echinoderm, and identifies gene expansions and positive selection related to adaptation to reducing environments.

The paper identifies two novel EF-hand proteins in echinoderms and hemichordates, suggesting a new subfamily specific to the Ambulacraria clade.

This study assembles and analyzes the gonad transcriptome of Paracentrotus lividus, identifying sex-related and lipid biosynthesis genes through differential expression analysis.

This study identifies genes and markers associated with growth variation in juvenile sandfish using transcriptome analysis of fast- and slow-growing individuals.

This study analyzes the embryonic development and anatomy of bipinnaria larvae in Asterias rubens, revealing three centers of neuronal complexity and providing insights into evolutionary conservation.

This paper presents the first draft genome of the sea cucumber Holothuria glaberrima, demonstrating its utility for studying regeneration and other genetic research.

This study analyzes the transcriptome of intestinal regeneration in sea cucumbers, identifying differentially expressed genes and pathways involved in the process.

This study generates and analyzes transcriptomes of Tripneustes gratilla across tissues, sex, and life stages to identify gene expression differences and expansions.

This paper provides a detailed anatomical description of the brittle star nervous system, including nomenclature standardization, 3D modeling, and identification of cell-type markers.