Echinoderms (sea urchins, sea stars, brittle stars, sea lilies and sea cucumbers) are a group of diverse organisms, second in number within deuterostome species to only the chordates. Echinoderms serve as excellent model systems for developmental biology due to their diverse developmental mechanisms, tractable laboratory use, and close phylogenetic distance to chordates. In addition, echinoderm...

We describe "universal" DNA primers for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of a 710-bp fragment of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene (COI) from 11 invertebrate phyla: Echinodermata, Mollusca, Annelida, Pogonophora, Arthropoda, Nemertinea, Echiura, Sipuncula, Platyhelminthes, Tardigrada, and Coelenterata, as well as the putative phylum Vestimentifera. Preliminary c...

Molecular evolutionary rates within two protistan and three metazoan taxa were estimated using divergence times derived from fossil records. The results indicate that the small-subunit rRNA sequences within Dasycladales (Chlorophyta) and Bacillariophyceae evolved at a rate approximately two to three times faster than that estimated within Echinodermata, Mollusca, and Actinistia-Tetrapoda. It wa...

The SALMFamides are a family of neuropeptides found in species belonging to the phylum Echinodermata and which act as muscle relaxants. The first two members of this family to be identified were both isolated from the starfishes Asterias rubens and Asterias forbesi and are known as S1 (GFNSALMFamide) and S2 (SGPYSFNSGLTFamide). However, little is known about the occurrence and characteristics o...

The huge potential of echinoderms as a so far fairly untapped source of bioactive molecules is described. Examples are presented that show the usefulness of echinoderm-derived molecules for therapeutic application in selected fields of cancer research, in the control of bacterial growth as substances with new antibiotic properties, and finally in the context of technical applications such as an...

This study tests the hypotheses that the birefringent calcite and stereom structure of the brittlestar (Ophiuroidea, Echinodermata) endoskeleton polarizes light and that certain brittlestars respond to polarized light. The first hypothesis was tested in Ophioderma brevispinum by examining ossicles from freshly killed specimens under polarized light. This analysis revealed that the lateral arm s...