Project description:The Crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) Acanthaster planci feeds on hard corals and its outbreaks are a major cause of destruction of coral communities on the Australian Great Barrier Reef. Whilst population booms and the social behaviour of COTS have been well studied, little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying COTS metabolism and behaviour. One of the major classes of chemical messengers that regulate metabolic and behavioural processes in animals are neuropeptides. Here, we have analysed COTS genome and transcriptome sequence data to identify neuropeptide precursor proteins in this species. Mass spectrometry was employed to identify neuropeptides extracted from radial nerve cords. Forty-nine neuropeptide precursors were identified, including homologs of neuropeptide signaling systems that are evolutionarily conserved throughout the Bilateria.
Project description:The Crown-of-Thorns starfish (COTS), Acanthaster planci, is a highly fecund predator of reef-building corals distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific. COTS population outbreaks cause substantial loss of coral cover, diminishing the integrity and resilience of the reef ecosystems thus increasing their susceptibility to climate change. We sequenced genomes of A. planci from the Great Barrier Reef, Australia (GBR) and Okinawa, Japan (OKI) to guide identification of species-specific peptide communication with potential applications in mitigation strategies. The genome-encoded proteins excreted and secreted into the surrounding seawater by COTS forming aggregations and by those escaping the predatory giant triton snail, Charonia tritonis, were identified LC-MS/MS.
