Diseases of echinoderms

Abstract

Diseases of echinoderms are poorly documented. Most reports concern biotic diseases caused by animal agents. While parasites on echinoderms have been described in increasing numbers of papers for more than one century, the host-parasite relationship and the effects of parasitism on echinoderm life-cycles were rarely considered. The parasitic fauna differs markedly according to the echinoderm group concerned, depending on various factors such as feeding-habits or symbiogenesis. Microorganismic diseases undoubtedly occur in echinoderms but they were not investigated until recently. Microorganisms have frequently been assumed to act as agents causing mass mortalities. As for stress-caused diseases, the only -and very preliminary -data available concern almost exclusively those induced by pollution. Since echinoderms are major components of benthic ecosystems, echinoderm diseases may be expected to exert prominent ecological effects.

Disease in sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus: experimental infection and bacterial virulence

“…Relatively little work has been done on the diseases of echinoderms (Jangoux 1984). Although Maes & Jangoux (1984, 1985 harvested bacteria from lesions on diseased sea urchins and used them for infectivity experiments, they did not isolate or characterize the bacteria.…”

“…Diseases have caused mortalities in many natural and captive populations of echinoderms (for review see Jangoux 1984). Most notable have been dramatic mass mortalities of sea urchins in a variety of localities (California: Johnson 1971; Mediterranean: Boudouresque et al 1981, Hobaus et al 1981; Caribbean and western tropical Atlantic: Lessios et al 1983Lessios et al , 1984aNova Scotia: Miller & Colodey 1983, Scheibling 1984, Scheibling & Stephenson 1984.…”

Long-term population dynamics of sea urchins in a central California kelp forest: rare recruitment and rapid decline

“…Disease has caused dramatically rapid declines in sea urchin populations in the Caribbean (Diadema antillarum), Nova Scotia (Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis), and central California (S. franciscan us), leaving clean intact tests of the same size structure as the live population (reviewed by Jangoux 1984, 1987a, b, c, Harrold & Pearse 1987. Disease-caused mass mortality in central California killed 60 to 95 % of the sea urchins in at least 2 localized populations during winter and spring 1976 in the Santa Cruz area, ca 35 km north and upstream of the prevailing currents from our study site .…”

“…fishes (Tegner & Dayton 1981, Cowan 1983, Hay 1984. sea stars (reviewed by Harrold & Pearse 1987), and decapods (Tegner & Dayton 1981, Tegner & Levin 1983, Scheibling 1984, Vadas et al 1986); (3) disease (reviewed by Jangoux 1984, 1987a, b, c, Harrold & Pearse 1987. Recruitment in sea urchin populations has received considerably less attention.…”

Chemical Biodiversity and Bioactivities of Saponins in Echinodermata with an Emphasis on Sea Cucumbers (Holothuroidea)

“…Sea urchins, the living representative of echinoids, are freemoving echinoderms (Clemente et al 2013). They typically have physical defense mechanisms such as fused skeleton plates, spines, and pedicellaria for pinching or capturing prey (Jangoux 1984). Some families such as Diadematidae, Echinothuriidae, and Toxopneustidae contain venoms (Thiel and Watling 2015).…”