Mechanical defensive adaptations of three Mediterranean sea urchin species

Voulgaris, Konstantinos; Varkoulis, Anastasios; Zaoutsos, Stefanos; Stratakis, Antonios; Vafidis, Dimitris

doi:10.1002/ece3.8247

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Diadema setosum (Leske, 1778) in the order Diadematoida, commonly known as the porcupine or long-spined sea urchin, is considered as one of the oldest known extant species in the genus Diadema (Coppard & Campbell, 2006). D. setosum displays features of typical sea urchin, including a dorso-ventrally compressed body and equipped with particularly long, brittle and hollow spines that are mildly venomous (Bilecenoğlu et al, 2019; Voulgaris et al, 2021). This species can be easily differentiated from other Diadema species by the presence of five distinctive white dots at the aboral side around the anal pore between the ambulacral grooves (Figure 1A).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chromosomal-level genome assembly of the long-spined sea urchinDiadema setosum(Leske, 1778)

Hui,

Chan,

Chan

et al. 2024

Preprint

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The long-spined sea urchin Diadema setosum is an algal and coral feeder widely distributed in the Indo-Pacific and can cause severe bioerosion on the reef community. Nevertheless, the lack of genomic information has hindered the study its ecology and evolution. Here, we report the chromosomal-level genome (885.8 Mb) of the long-spined sea urchin D. setosum using a combination of PacBio long-read sequencing and Omni-C scaffolding technology. The assembled genome contained scaffold N50 length of 38.3 Mb, 98.1 % of BUSCO (Geno, metazoa_odb10) genes, and with 98.6% of the sequences anchored to 22 pseudo-molecules/chromosomes. A total of 27,478 genes including 23,030 protein-coding genes were annotated. The high-quality genome of D. setosum presented here provides a significant resource for further understanding on the ecological and evolutionary studies of this coral reef associated sea urchin.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chromosomal-level genome assembly of the long-spined sea urchinDiadema setosum(Leske, 1778)

Hui,

Chan,

Chan

et al. 2024

Preprint

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“…A successful invasion can only take place, when the invading species can cope with the new environmental conditions and usually exhibits some adaptive advantage (Smith, 2009). In the case of D. setosum it was previously shown that it presented decreased Mg content in the skeleton compared to its counterparts in the Pacific without compromising the survival rate due to its chemical defense (Voulgaris et al., 2021). However, there is neither evidence regarding the interactions of D. setosum with the native echinoid species of the shallow sublittoral zone, namely Arbacia lixula , Paracentrotus lividus , and Sphaerechinus granularis nor information about its feeding ecology in the Mediterranean.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tooth Mg/Ca ratios and Aristotle's lantern morphometrics reflect trophic types in echinoids

Vafidis,

Varkoulis,

Zaoutsos

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Several studies have inferred the ecological significance regarding the morphometrics of Aristotle's lantern and the mechanical properties of magnesium in echinoid teeth. This study attempts to combine these aspects, connecting them to the trophic habits of three native and an invasive echinoid in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Spatiotemporal data from the central and southern Aegean Sea were obtained, regarding the relative size of lanterns and demi‐pyramids of Arbacia lixula, Paracentrotus lividus, Sphaerechinus granularis, and the invasive echinoid Diadema setosum and the Mg/Ca ratios of four zones on the tooth cross‐section. Since environmental factors affect the examined factors, data for temperature, salinity, and concentration of chlorophyll‐a were included in a principal component analysis. A. lixula and P. lividus presented intraspecific differences in the relative size of the lantern and demi‐pyramid, while S. granularis and D. setosum exhibited variation in the elongation index. Differences in the Mg/Ca ratios were observed for all species although in different zones. Temperature appears to be related to all Mg/Ca zones except for the stone part, while the elongation index showed an inverse trend to all other morphometric parameters. The results of the PCA for the four species on the spatiotemporal level exhibited a distinction of individuals with season but not species, except for A. lixula, an omnivore with a carnivorous tendency, which was clearly separated from the herbivorous species. Using hierarchical clustering on the principal components it was evident that the three native species occupy different clusters, but when D. setosum was added, it shared the same cluster with S. granularis. This might infer similar feeding preferences, specifically for coralline algae, which might lead to a swift in the ecological equilibrium in regions, where D. setosum is found, either by affecting habitat type, or by restricting the distribution of S. granularis as was previously observed with Diadema africanum.

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“…For example, the Mg/Ca ratio content has been demonstrated to alter mechanical properties and is highly variable among different species, ossicles and stereom types as well as in association with different food type availability and environmental abiotic factors (e.g. temperature and salinity) [66][67][68][69]. The stereom porosity, mainly in spines, has also been investigated in detail [50,55,[70][71][72].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hexagonal Voronoi pattern detected in the microstructural design of the echinoid skeleton

Perricone

Grun

Rendina

et al. 2022

J. R. Soc. Interface.

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Repeated polygonal patterns are pervasive in natural forms and structures. These patterns provide inherent structural stability while optimizing strength-per-weight and minimizing construction costs. In echinoids (sea urchins), a visible regularity can be found in the endoskeleton, consisting of a lightweight and resistant micro-trabecular meshwork (stereom). This foam-like structure follows an intrinsic geometrical pattern that has never been investigated. This study aims to analyse and describe it by focusing on the boss of tubercles—spine attachment sites subject to strong mechanical stresses—in the common sea urchin Paracentrotus lividus . The boss microstructure was identified as a Voronoi construction characterized by 82% concordance to the computed Voronoi models, a prevalence of hexagonal polygons, and a regularly organized seed distribution. This pattern is interpreted as an evolutionary solution for the construction of the echinoid skeleton using a lightweight microstructural design that optimizes the trabecular arrangement, maximizes the structural strength and minimizes the metabolic costs of secreting calcitic stereom. Hence, this identification is particularly valuable to improve the understanding of the mechanical function of the stereom as well as to effectively model and reconstruct similar structures in view of future applications in biomimetic technologies and designs.

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Mechanical defensive adaptations of three Mediterranean sea urchin species

Abstract: This is an open access article under the terms of the Creat ive Commo ns Attri bution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Cited by 6 publications

References 49 publications

Chromosomal-level genome assembly of the long-spined sea urchinDiadema setosum(Leske, 1778)

Chromosomal-level genome assembly of the long-spined sea urchinDiadema setosum(Leske, 1778)

Tooth Mg/Ca ratios and Aristotle's lantern morphometrics reflect trophic types in echinoids

Hexagonal Voronoi pattern detected in the microstructural design of the echinoid skeleton

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