Temporal expression of the importins IPO4, IPO11, IPO13 and KPNB1 was examined in <i>Lytechinus variegatus</i> during embryogenesis to determine whether these genes are differentially expressed or ubiquitously distributed during development. Utilizing template cDNA isolated from <i>L. variegatus</i> embryos at 0, 3, 6, 12, 18, 24, and 30 hours post fertilization (hpf), reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) was performed to amplify the target genes. In addition, transcriptome and domain analyses were performed on each of the karyopherins to identify expression patterns in a related sea urchin <i>Strongylocentrotus purpuratus</i> (the purple sea urchin) from the Pacific coast and to determine the degree of structural similarity present in the importin sequences of both species.