Coral Venom and Toxins as Protection Against Crown-of-Thorns Sea Star Attack.

ABSTRACT: Crown-of-thorns sea star (CoTS) outbreaks are a main cause of hard coral cover decline across the Indo-Pacific, posing a major threat to the resilience of coral reefs. However, the drivers underlying CoTS feeding on preferred (e.g., Acropora species) versus non-preferred (e.g., Porites species) are poorly understood. We hypothesised that coral venom may influence CoTS prey preferences. To investigate this hypothesis, we compared the coral venom toxin families across the genomes of preferred (A. digitifera, A. hyacinthus, A. millepora and A. tenuis) and non-preferred (P. australiensis, P. compressa, P. lutea and P. rus) prey species of CoTS. We also included one species from each genus inhabiting the Caribbean, where CoTS are absent (A. cervicornis and P. astreoides), to broaden our identif

SUBMITTER: Gorman LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12745922 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature