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Skeleton growth under uniformly distributed force conditions: producing spherical sea urchins

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2016

Polly Cheng ,
Ankita Kambli  and
Johnny Stone
Polly Cheng
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Ankita Kambli
Affiliation:
Origins Institute, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Johnny Stone*
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Origins Institute, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada SHARCNet, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
*
e-mail: jstoner@mcmaster.ca
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Abstract

Sea urchin skeletons, or tests, comprise rigid calcareous plates, interlocked and sutured together with collagen fibres. The tests are malleable due to mutability in the collagen fibres that loosen during active feeding, yielding interplate gaps. We designed an extraterrestrial simulation experiment wherein we subjected actively growing sea urchins to one factor associated with zero-gravity environments, by growing them under conditions in which reactionary gravitational forces were balanced, and observed how their tests responded. Preventing tests from adhering to surfaces during active growth produced more-spherical bodies, realized as increased height-to-diameter ratios. Sea urchin tests constitute ideal systems for obtaining data that could be useful in extraterrestrial biology research, particularly in how skeletons grow under altered-gravity conditions.

Keywords

astrobiologyextraterrestrial simulation experimentmorphologyphenotypic evolutionzero-gravity
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Astrobiology , Volume 16 , Issue 4 , October 2017 , pp. 343 - 348
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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