Energy metabolism during development of the antarctic sea urchin Sterechinus neumayeri

Little is known about the developmental physiology of lar- al forms of antarctic marine invertebrates. At tempera-tures typical of sea water in McMurdo Sound (-1.8°C), rates ofdevelopment are slow (Pearse, McClintock, and Bosch 1991).The feeding larval stage (pluteus) of the antarctic echinoidSterechinus neumayeri develops approximately 20 days afterfertilization; the juvenile stage is reached by 115 days (Boschet al. 1987). We investigated the biochemical and physiologicalchanges that occurred during the early development of thisspecies. Our approach was to • measure the changes in respiration during development tothe feeding larval stage; • measure the changes in enzymes involved in aerobicmetabolism; and • measure the changes in total protein, total lipid, and spe-cific lipid classes during development.