Born this way
"My mama told me when I was young
We are all born superstars
She rolled my hair and put my lipstick on
In the glass of her boudoir"
- "Born this way" by Lady Gaga
As I'm going through my Arctic samples, I'm finding a number of embryos. It's super exciting for me to find embryos, not just larvae, because it means that means there are species spawning in the middle of the Arctic winter, in the polar night. A larva could be in the water column from a spawn earlier in the year (some larvae stay in the water column for months), but an embryo was most likely spawned hours to days before collection.
What's super exciting is that many of the embryos look like they're the same species. They're all the same size and color, but they're at various stages of development. The youngest are eggs with fertilization envelopes but no cell divisions. Some of the samples are clumps of cells, either morula or blastula stages. I've also seen gorgeous gastrulas, which is the stage when part of the outer cell layer folds in on itself to produce a cavity that eventually becomes the digestive system.
In order to figure out what species the embryos are, I'll have to use molecular techniques (DNA sequencing), but I have one hypothesis based on other samples collected at the same time. Some individuals in my samples were small ribbon worms, slightly larger but the same approximate color as the embryos. It stands to reason that the embryos I'm seeing might be the same species as the ribbon worms, especially since many species of ribbon worms develop directly into juveniles.
I'm excited to identify the embryos and see if they're baby ribbon worms. My samples hold huge promise for understanding reproduction in the polar night!
We are all born superstars
She rolled my hair and put my lipstick on
In the glass of her boudoir"
- "Born this way" by Lady Gaga
 |
| A fertilized egg and a blastula |
What's super exciting is that many of the embryos look like they're the same species. They're all the same size and color, but they're at various stages of development. The youngest are eggs with fertilization envelopes but no cell divisions. Some of the samples are clumps of cells, either morula or blastula stages. I've also seen gorgeous gastrulas, which is the stage when part of the outer cell layer folds in on itself to produce a cavity that eventually becomes the digestive system.
In order to figure out what species the embryos are, I'll have to use molecular techniques (DNA sequencing), but I have one hypothesis based on other samples collected at the same time. Some individuals in my samples were small ribbon worms, slightly larger but the same approximate color as the embryos. It stands to reason that the embryos I'm seeing might be the same species as the ribbon worms, especially since many species of ribbon worms develop directly into juveniles.
I'm excited to identify the embryos and see if they're baby ribbon worms. My samples hold huge promise for understanding reproduction in the polar night!
 |
| Small ribbon worms in my samples. Left, direct-developing larva; right, small benthic juvenile |
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