A Brief Review of Convergent Evolution of Pluteus Larvae in Echinoderms

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  • Wada Hiroshi
    Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences University of Tsukuba
  • Matsubara Mioko
    Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences University of Tsukuba
  • Hareyama Takeshi
    Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences University of Tsukuba

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  • 棘皮動物プルテウス幼生の収斂進化について
  • キョクヒ ドウブツ プルテウス ヨウセイ ノ シュウレン シンカ ニ ツイテ

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Two types of larval morphology are recognized in extant echinoderms, namely auricularia-type larvae for starfish, sea cucumbers and sea lilies, and pluteus-type larvae for sea urchins and brittle stars. Since sister-grouping of the sea urchins and the sea cucumbers is supported by both fossil evidence and molecular data, the pluteus-type larvae are regarded to have evolved convergently in the sea urchins and the brittle stars. This paper briefly reviews recent progress in our work on comparative molecular developmental studies in the echinoderms. We investigated expressions and function of developmental genes, which are essential for sea urchin larval skeletogenesis, in the starfish and brittle stars. Based on expression data, we infer how the larval skeleton evolved in the sea urchins and brittle stars.

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