Red sea urchins were collected and spawned as described in [31]. Briefly, adults were collected from Ellwood Mesa, Goleta, California, USA (34° 25.065’N, 119° 54.092’W) at 14-m depth via SCUBA on February 21, 2018 under California Scientific Collecting Permit SC-1223 and transported to the Marine Science Institute at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB). Spawning was induced by injecting 0.53 M KCl into the coelom through the perioral membrane [145]. Eggs from five individual females and sperm from a single male were collected. A subsample of eggs from each female was fertilized with sperm from the male and high fertilization success was examined for each cross (i.e., visually confirming the formation of fertilization envelopes). These subsamples were only used to verify suitable male-female compatibility and were discarded prior to the experiment. An approximately equal number of eggs from each of the five females were gently pooled together. The pool of eggs was fertilized by slowly adding dilute, activated sperm from the male until approximately 98% fertilization success was reached. Performing crosses with a single male ensured that all cultures were composed of full- or half-sibling embryos. This approach was selected in an effort to limit paternal genetic variability and differences in male-female interactions that could otherwise impact the results of the study.
Wong J. M. & Hofmann G. E., in review. Gene expression patterns of Red Sea urchins (Mesocentrotus Franciscanus) exposed to different combinations of temperature and pCO2 during early development. BMC Genomics. Article.
