Sea Urchin and Humans are Family!!
posted in Amazing Facts, Latest News, Plant Species |
They might be small, spiky, and spineless, but they’re still part of our family. The California purple urchins and we have more than 7,000 genes in common, which makes them close cousins to humans.
This unexpectedly discovery of connection between the humans and sea urchins that are part of the few invertebrates seen on the branch of the evolutionary tree. This conclusion has been arrived at after a recent sequencing of the sea urchin genome.
Gary Wessel is a biology professor at the Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and a member of the Sea Urchin Genome Sequencing Consortium. He had used the marine animals for decades as models to study human processes like fertilization and embryo development.
“We’ve already learned an enormous amount from the sea urchin, from something as basic as how identical twins form to in vitro fertilization procedures,” Wessel said in a university press release.
“With a complete map of the urchin’s DNA, we can now learn more quickly and easily how each process works during development.”
The results of the genetic sequencing also revealed some surprises for Wessel: The eyeless urchins can actually see! The Genes that are associated with vision are active in the urchins’ tube feet, suggesting that their limbs can actually sense light.
“Nobody would’ve predicted that sea urchins have such a robust gene set for visual perception,” Wessel said. “I’ve been looking at these organisms for 31 years—and now I know they were looking back at me.”