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Fishery and Sea ResourcesFigure 2: Morphologies of P. lividus sea urchin embryos observed after 48 hours of exposureto different pollutants.use of sensitive stress markers whose responsesare detectable in very short periodsof time. Preference goes to genes/proteinswhose expression is rapidly altered as aconsequence of external insults, as thosebelonging to a variety of cellular protectionpathways, including specific stress inductionmechanisms (activated by a range ofinsults), intracellular sequestration mechanisms(playing a role in the detoxificationfrom heavy metals) and elimination of irreversiblydamaged cells by apoptosis. Recentadvances in cellular and molecular biologyhave made it possible the identificationof numerous specific genes/proteinsboth in echinoderm adult immune cells andembryos. Several methodologies are usedin our laboratory, all sensitive enough todetect variations in proteins and genes levels.These include Western blotting and 2Dgels for the analysis of proteins and Northernblot, Q-PCR and “in situ” hybridization(ISH) for the analysis of genes. The diagrampresented in Figure 3 summarizes allthe hazard factors tested on embryos andadult immune cells of both sea urchin andsea star and the molecular markers analysedin our laboratory so far.1972