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Most humans experience some growing pains , but , for a young sea urchin , spring up up means turning yourself inside out .
New enquiry explores the central function a familiar substance , histamine , plays in this dramatic metamorphosis from a free swimming larva to the more intimate spiny grownup that live on the seafloor .
The signaling molecule histamine is visible in green in the blue cells of this sea urchin larva (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus).
Well known to allergic reaction martyr for its connection with sneezing , reeking eyesand other symptom , histamine get up a sea urchin larva to metamorphose into a radically different adult form within an hr , said study researcher Andreas Heyland , an assistant prof at the University of Guelph in Canada .
" They turn basically inside out , like a windsock , " Heyland read .
Sea - urchin larvae swimming freely in the sea , living among other tiny organisms known as plankton , and as they mature they float deeper into the sea . Before they can subside down on the seafloor , where they will spend the rest of their life , the larvae must be able to cull up on environmental cues that tell them they are in the right spot .
An adult purple sea urchin.
For instance , the regal sea urchin(Strongylocentrotus purpuratus ) that Heyland and colleagues studied prefers rough environments , so it may be home in on chemical cues release by alga andkelp that already live there , he said .
for pluck up on these cues , the larvae must go through a phase bang as competency . Heyland and colleagues tested the effects of histamine on sea - urchin growing and concluded that this speck trifle an of import character as an interior sign within the larvae to make them competent .
The sea - urchin larvae carry a backpacklike software system around with them that bear adult structures , including many member , call tube feet .
" The entire software package comes out of the larva at the same clip the larval social structure decay , " Heyland told LiveScience . " You get this little urchin that is unfolding . " [ Spectacular Underwater Photos ]
Other enquiry on a different type of sea urchin detect a dissimilar role for histamine . In this pillowcase , the sea urchin appeared to remind into histamines in the environment , rather than within their own body . Heyland ’s squad found no evidence for this in the purple sea urchin , indicating that dissimilar species of sea urchin may use the particle differently .
Histamine is an ancient and coarse signaling molecule . In world , it plays a role in digestion , allergies , the quietus - wake cycle and memory . Plants and bacterium also expend histamine , suggesting it has been a signaling molecule since long before the evolution of mammalian , he enounce .
While histamine may be wide propagate around the Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree of life , organisms ' systems for using it differ . However , the team did line up a law of similarity : Histamine shape the metamorphosis ofsea urchinsusing a receptor have-to doe with to a histamine receptor necessitate in communication between nerve cellphone in mammals .
The subject was publish Thursday ( April 26 ) in the daybook BMC Developmental Biology .
