Reconstruction of cell-type families in the purple sea urchin larva reveals unprecedented transcriptional diversity, stunning neuronal complexity and a missing link to pancreas evolution, suggesting this approach can be also used to uncover hidden cell type homologies.

The slope of the chemoattractant concentration gradient is a driving force for sperm chemotaxis, by coordinating the entrainment of information flow between sensing, signaling and motility.

Expression of two highly regulated subfamilies of the complex multigene family encoding IL-17 cytokines in the purple sea urchin are sequentially activated in a larval gut-associated inflammation model and modulate downstream gene expression in the gut epithelium.

Multimodal technologies and the experimental tractability of sea urchin embryos reveal diverse regulatory mechanisms and unique genes for distinct pigment cell states.

Discovery of a novel neuropeptide signalling system in a deuterostome invertebrate reveals the evolutionary origin of prolactin-releasing peptide and its relationship with neuropeptides in protostome invertebrates.

Cellular carbon accumulation systems are a fundamental prerequisite for biomineralization to stabilize pH and to supply inorganic carbon for CaCO₃ precipitation under changing environmental conditions.

Understanding novel cell types and their evolutionary history is re-evaluated using single nuclei transcriptomic approaches and their inferred underlying gene regulatory networks.

The transcriptional control system of a sea urchin gene reveals the deep evolutionary conservation of a gene regulatory network underlying morphogenesis.

Unexpected findings from the immune system of sea urchin larvae potentially provide insights into immune signaling in ancestral lifeforms.

The recently characterized opsin group of xenopsins is likely a major player in animal eye evolution and may have been present in an ancient, highly plastic eye photoreceptor cell type.