Integrative biological analyses of responses to food deprivation reveal resilience mechanisms in sea urchin larvae

A fundamental question in ecophysiology is how organisms survive food deprivation in changing habitats. In the ocean, climate change is impacting the phenology of food availability and the nutritional physiology of early life-history stages of animals. To address this question, we studied larvae of the sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus), an important keystone species in marine ecology and an experimental model in developmental biology. To identify mechanisms of resilience that maintain physiological state and the ability of larvae to recover from food deprivation, a suite of molecular biological, biochemical, physiological, and whole-organism measurements was completed. This integrative approach allowed for filtering of gene expression signatures, based on gene network analyses and measured biochemical and physiological traits to identify signatures (biomarkers) of resilience.