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Embryos of the deep‐sea echinoid Echinus affinis require high pressure for development
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 197
eISSN - 1939-5590
pISSN - 0024-3590
DOI - 10.4319/lo.1993.38.1.0178
Subject(s) - hydrostatic pressure , benthic zone , invertebrate , biology , deep sea , marine invertebrates , bathymetry , oceanography , human fertilization , echinoderm , fishery , ecology , geology , anatomy , physics , thermodynamics
High hydrostatic pressures retard de velopmcnt of many shallow‐water marine invertebrates, but there is no evidence to suggest that reduced pressure influences embryonic development of deep‐sea benthic invertebrates. In fact, no invertebrate embryos from depths > 1,000 m have ever been reared. We report here the in vitro rearing of embryos of the deep‐sea echinoid Echinus affinus collected from 2,000 m in the NE Atlantic Ocean. Embryos developed more rapidly at the pressure equivalent of 2,000 m than the pressure equivalent of 1,000 m, which is near the upper limit of the bathymetric range of this species. At atmospheric pressure and at the pressure equivalent of 500 m, fertilization membranes formed and nuclei cleaved, but cytoplasmic division was inhibited. These findings suggest that embryonic pressure requirements could set the upper bathymetric limits of some deep‐sea species.