Heat shock proteins in dissociated sea urchin embryonic cells.

Embryos dissociated into cells retain the stage-specific response to heat shock. The dissociated cells, irrespectively of whether they are reaggregated or not, undergo the developmental changes in their ability to respond to heat shock, at the same time as the entire embryos. The conclusion of the present experiments is that sea urchin embryonic cells become responsive to heat shock and produce heat shock proteins even in the absence of cell interactions.