tube foot

One of the numerous external, fluid-filled muscular tubes of an echinoderm, such as a starfish or sea urchin, serving as organs of locomotion, food handling, and respiration.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

tube foot

(Zoology) any of numerous tubular outgrowths of the body wall of most echinoderms that are used as organs of locomotion and respiration and to aid ingestion of food

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

tube′ foot`

one of numerous small, tubular processes on the ventral body surface of most echinoderms, used for locomotion and grasping.

[1885–90]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

tube foot - tentacular tubular process of most echinoderms (starfish and sea urchins and holothurians) having a sucker at the end and used for e.g. locomotion and respiration

echinoderm - marine invertebrates with tube feet and five-part radially symmetrical bodies

invertebrate foot, foot - any of various organs of locomotion or attachment in invertebrates

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References in periodicals archive

The early nerves include the ring nerve surrounding the future mouth, the radial nerves extending from the ring nerve to the tips of the arms, and the podial nerves extending from the radial nerves to encircle each tube foot (Fig.

Abbreviated Development of the Brooding Brittle Star Ophioplocus esmarki

Each tube foot consists of an enlarged and flattened distal extremity, the disc, which makes contact and attaches to the substratum, the epidermis of the disc encloses a duo-gland adhesive system comprising two types of cells, the ones releasing adhesive secretions and those releasing de-adhesive secretions, allowing sea urchins to attach themselves to substratum (Santos & Flammang 2007).

Preferred temperature, critical thermal maximum, and metabolic response of the black sea urchin Arbacia Stellata (Blainville, 1825; GMelin, 1791)

Basically, each tube foot contains sucker at the terminal end tips.

Biology of Incidental Catch Sea Star Stellaster childreni Gray, 1840 (Echinodermata: Asteroidea), from Malaysian Borneo Exclusive Economic Zone

Alternatively, because sea urchin tube feet disc photoreceptor cells in vivo connect directly to tube foot nerves (Ullrich-Luter et al., 2011), the miniature currents we observed may represent synaptic vesicular release from sea urchin tube feet disc cells as part of the expected onward signaling from photoreceptor cells to the rest of the sea urchin nervous system.

Light-Dependent Electrical Activity in Sea Urchin Tube Feet Cells

The NO synthase inhibitor L-NAME increased sea urchin righting time at 1 mmol [l.sup.-1] but had no detectable effect on righting time at 0.2 mmol [l.sup.-1], indicating a role of NO in tube foot motility (Fig.

Pharmacological Disruption of Sea Urchin Tube Foot Motility and Behavior

If tube-foot number (and therefore total area of podial support) varies isometrically with arm length, then the mass supported per tube foot and per unit podial cross-sectional area will be higher in larger sea stars, which might impair locomotion at larger body sizes.

Effects of body size and shape on locomotion in the bat star (Patinia miniata)

Evaluation of the different forces brought into play during tube foot activities in sea stars.

Mechanical mutability in connective tissue of starfish body wall

At the base of the tube foot where the podial NS joined with the radial nerve cords.

Nervous system development in feeding and nonfeeding asteroid larvae and the early juvenile

Histological sections showed that these tissue layers occupied about 24% and 59%, respectively, of the wall of the ventral tube foot of A.

Low oxygen consumption and high body content of catch connective tissue contribute to low metabolic rate of sea cucumbers

7b, d), although the fiber plexus in the outer connective tissue of the tentacle appeared to have fewer cells than in the tube foot.

Identification of nerve plexi in connective tissues of the sea cucumber Holothuria glaberrima by using a novel nerve-specific antibody

The skeletogenesis of the posterodorsal rod, dorsal arch, disk of tube foot, and spines were observed with differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy and polarizing microscopy (OPTIPHOT-POL, Nikon, Tokyo, Japan).

Study of larval and adult skeletogenic cells in developing sea urchin larvae

In the sea star contact experiments, a single tube foot was excised from a live sea star, held in self-closing forceps, and brought into contact with the back of the oral hood of a specimen of Melibe.

Swimming behavior of the nudibranch Melibe leonina