Analysis of coelom development in the sea urchin Holopneustes purpurescens yielding a deuterostome body plan

Abstract

An analysis of early coelom development in the echinoid Holopneustes purpurescens yields a deuterostome body plan that explains the disparity between the pentameral plan of echinoderms and the bilateral plans of chordates and hemichordates, the three major phyla of the monophyletic deuterostomes. The analysis shows an early separation into a medial hydrocoele and lateral coelomic mesoderm with an enteric channel between them before the hydrocoele forms the pentameral plan of five primary podia. The deuterostome body plan thus has a single axial or medial coelom and a pair of lateral coeloms, all surrounding an enteric channel, the gut channel. Applied to the phyla, the medial coelom is the hydrocoele in echinoderms, the notochord in chordates and the proboscis coelom in hemichordates: the lateral coeloms are the coelomic mesoderm in echinoderms, the paraxial mesoderm in chordates and the lateral coeloms in hemichordates. The plan fits frog and chick development and the echinoderm fossil record, and predicts genes involved in coelomogenesis as the source of deuterostome macroevolution.