Oral/aboral ectoderm differentiation of the sea urchin embryo depends on a planar or secretory signal from the vegetal hemisphere. A monoclonal antibody that recognizes oral ectoderm and esophagus of sea urchin larvae was newly produced. Distribution of the antigen, named Hpoe, was examined by indirect immunofluorescence microscopy. Hpoe did not exist in eggs and appeared during the cleavage stage. In hatched blastulae, Hpoe was detected on the apical surface of all cells. As embryogenesis progressed, Hpoe disappeared from the primary mesenchyme, archenteron and aboral ectoderm. Hpoe reappeared in foregut at the prism stage and was restricted to the oral ectoderm and esophagus at the pluteus stage. Using this antigen as a molecular marker of oral/aboral ectoderm differentiation, the role of the vegetal hemisphere in ectoderm differentiation was examined. All animal hemispheres isolated from 16-cell stage embryos, mesenchyme blastulae, early gastrulae and mid gastrulae developed into epithelial balls and every cell expressed Hpoe. These epithelial balls failed in oral/aboral ectoderm differentiation. Twenty millimolar LiCl-treated whole embryos developed into exo-gastrulae but Hpoe restriction in ectoderm occurred in these exo-gastrulae. These results show that oral/aboral ectoderm differentiation requires an inductive interaction from the vegetal hemisphere and indicate that the inductive interaction depends on a planar or secretory signal, rather than the contact of the esophagus and ectoderm.