The question of whether the ancestral bilaterian had a central nervous system (CNS) or a
diffuse ectodermal nervous system has been hotly debated. Considerable evidence …

Embryos of the echinoderms, especially those of sea urchins and sea stars, have been
studied as model organisms for over 100 years. The simplicity of their early development …

Biological systems involving short-range activators and long-range inhibitors can generate
complex patterns. Reaction-diffusion models postulate that differences in signaling range …

Microplastics are now polluting all seas and, while studies have found numerous negative
interactions between plastic pollution and marine animals, the effects on embryonic …

The goal of comparative developmental biology is identifying mechanistic differences in
embryonic development between different taxa and how these evolutionary changes have …

During early development of the sea urchin embryo, activation of ERK signalling in
mesodermal precursors is not triggered by extracellular RTK ligands but by a cell …

Apical organs are relatively simple larval nervous systems. The extent to which apical
organs are evolutionarily related to the more complex nervous systems of other animals …

Using scRNA-seq coupled with computational approaches, we studied transcriptional
changes in cell states of sea urchin embryos during development to the larval stage …

Nodal and BMP signals are important for establishing left-right (LR) asymmetry in
vertebrates. In sea urchins, Nodal signaling prevents the formation of the rudiment on the …

Recent studies of the sea urchin embryo have elucidated the mechanisms that localize and
pattern its nervous system. These studies have revealed the presence of two overlapping …