Sea urchin larvae spend weeks to months feeding on plankton prior to metamorphosis. When handled in the laboratory they are easily injured, suggesting that in the plankton they are injured with some frequency. Fortunately, larval wounds are repaired through an efficient wound response with mesenchymal pigment cells and blastocoelar cells assisting as the epithelium closes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe stereotypic cleavage pattern of sea urchin embryos provides a platform for dissection of early lineage decisions that lead to cell diversification. Cell transplantation provides a useful tool for understanding those decisions. The methods described in this paper provide a guide for how to produce embryonic mosaics in which either one cell is transplanted or an entire tier of cells are transplanted to a host embryo.
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