Infestation of the testes of the Japanese sea star Asterias amurensis by the ciliate Orchitophyra stellarum:a caution against the use of this ciliate for biological control

Byrne, Margaret M.; Cerra, Anna; Nishigaki, Takuya; Hoshi, Motonori

doi:10.3354/dao028235

Cited by 25 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…1). This gross pathology was similar to previous descriptions of infected asteriid hosts (Bouland & Jangoux 1988, Byrne et al 1997. In most cases, single testes of infected males included both pathological and healthy tissue, as in Fig.…”

supporting

confidence: 69%

“…Although phylogenetic relationships among sea star orders are not fully resolved (Knott & Wray 2000), forcipulate sea stars (including ancestors of living asteriids) probably diverged from lineages that would give rise to valvatids (including Patiria and other asterinids) in the Jurassic (Blake 1987 Byrne (1996) and Byrne et al (1997) argued against the potential use of Orchitophrya stellarum as a biocontrol agent against invasive Asterias amurensis populations due to the non-specific nature of O. stellarum infections among asteriids. Our discovery of ciliates resembling O. stellarum in an asterinid host reinforces this argument.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Spread of O. stellarum to other habitats and host species could have significant consequences for ecologically important sea stars. In North America, recently described pathogenic infections of asteriid hosts (Leighton et al 1991, Stickle et al 2001, 2007a (Goggin & Bouland 1997), but the desirability of such an effort depends in large part on the potential effect of O. stellarum on native Tasmanian sea stars (Byrne 1996, Byrne et al 1997, especially endangered and endemic species such as Parvulastra vivipara (family Asterinidae) that represent much of the asteroid diversity of Australia (Byrne 2006). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These ciliates seasonally invade developing testes, consume the sperm, and ravage the germinal epithelium. Heavily infected males are functionally castrated, and high castration rates can result in effectively unisexual populations of females (Leighton et al 1991, Byrne et al 1997. Known hosts are mainly Japanese and north Atlantic species of Asterias Linnaeus, 1758 (family Asteriidae).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Emerging infectious disease in sea stars: castrating ciliate parasites in Patiria miniata

Sunday

Raeburn²,

Hart

2008

Dis. Aquat. Org.

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Orchitophrya stellarum is a holotrich ciliate that facultatively parasitizes and castrates male asteriid sea stars. We discovered a morphologically similar ciliate in testes of an asterinid sea star, the northeastern Pacific bat star Patiria miniata (Brandt, 1835). This parasite may represent a threat to Canadian populations of this iconic sea star. Confirmation that the parasite is O. stellarum would indicate a considerable host range expansion, and suggest that O. stellarum is a generalist sea star pathogen. KEY WORDS: Scuticociliate · Asterias amurensis · Biocontrol · Sperm Resale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisherDis Aquat Org 81: [173][174][175][176] 2008 parasites strongly argues against their deliberate introduction into other faunas for biocontrol of invasive sea stars. MATERIALS AND METHODSAs part of a continuing study of the reproduction and population structure of Patiria miniata, we routinely collect and spawn adults from 2 intertidal locations at Dixon Island and Grappler Inlet near the Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre (48°50' N, 125°8' W) on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. In June 2007, we observed several males that responded to a hormonal spawning inducer by producing seminal fluid that had a slightly darker color than the usual milky white appearance of sea star sperm. On examination, these spawns contained abundant small ciliates mixed with sperm. We confirmed these observations with 2 subsequent collections. In August 2007, we searched for ciliates on the external body wall of individuals by gently pipeting from the aboral surface around the gonopores, and then examining this material for ciliates that resembled those found in gonads. We then dissected the gonads to search for ciliates in thin smears of the gonadal tissue. We cultured ciliates collected from gonads at 12°C in 50 ml plastic Falcon tubes containing seawater with pieces of testis or aliquots of sperm from P. miniata. We photographed individual ciliates in thin wet mounts using bright field or differential interference contrast (DIC) microscopy. For DIC, ciliates were fixed in 95% ethanol and immediately photographed. In February 2008, we collected 18 adults from Dixon Island and injected them with 1 to 3 ml of 100 µM 1-methyladenine (1-MA), which induces maturation of oocytes (in females) and spawning (in both sexes, Strathmann 1987). We estimated the prevalence of infection by light microscopy of spawned material in wet mounts. RESULTSIn August 2007, 50% of 12 males sampled from Grappler Inlet had ciliates resembling Orchitophrya stellarum on the external body around the gonopores. Ciliates were also identifiable in gonadal smears in 1 of these samples. In samples from Dixon Island (August 2007), 50% of 14 males and 66% of 9 females had O. stellarum-like ciliates from the aboral body wall. Four of the males sampled from Dixon Island (28%) had ciliate infection in gonadal smears. In a later collection from Dixon Island (February 2008), 8 males spawned in response to 1-M...

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supporting

confidence: 69%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Emerging infectious disease in sea stars: castrating ciliate parasites in Patiria miniata

Sunday

Raeburn²,

Hart

2008

Dis. Aquat. Org.

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“…The same species has since been recorded from the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans: from A. forbesi from Connecticut, USA (Burrows 1936), A. vulgans from Prince Edward Island and Quebec, Canada (Smith 1936, Claereboudt & Bouland 1994, Sclerastenas richardii from the Mediterranean Sea (Febvre et al 1981), Pisaster ochraceus from British Columbia, Canada (Leighton et al 1991), and A. amurensis from Japan (Byrne et al 1997, Goggin & Bouland 1997. Few of these isolates have been adequately described and, to our knowledge, none have been deposited in museums.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Conservation of sequence in the internal transcribed spacers and 5.8S ribosomal RNA among geographically separated isolates of parasitic scuticociliates (Ciliophora, Orchitophryidae)

Goggin

Murphy²

2000

Dis. Aquat. Org.

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Nucleotide sequence from the internal transcribed spacers (ITS1 and ITS2) and the 5.8s gene from the r~bosomal RNA gene cluster of isolates of the scuticociliate Orchitophrya stellarum from 4 asteroid hosts were compared. Surprisingly, these data (495 bp) were identical for 0. stellarum isolated from the testes of Astenas amurensis from Japan; Pisaster ochraceus from British Columbia, Canada; Asterias rubens from The Netherlands; and Astenas vulgaris from Prince Edward Island, Canada. These sequence data were compared to those from 3 scuticociliates which parasitise crustaceans: Mesanophrys pugettensis, M. chesapeakensis and Anophryoides haemophila. No difference was found in this region between the nucleotide sequence of M pugettensis and M. chesapeakensis The sequence of Mesanophrys spp. differed by 9 2 % in the ITS1 and 4.7 % in the ITS2 from that of 0. stellarum. The sequence from the ITS1 (135 bp) and ITS2 (233 bp) of A. haenlophila differed by 42 6 and 20.5% respectively from those of 0. stellarum. Therefore, nucleotide sequence of the ITS regions in these scuticociliates is highly conserved.

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Echinoderms

Harms¹

2006

Invertebrate Medicine

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Infestation of the testes of the Japanese sea star Asterias amurensis by the ciliate Orchitophyra stellarum:a caution against the use of this ciliate for biological control

Cited by 25 publications

References 2 publications

Emerging infectious disease in sea stars: castrating ciliate parasites in Patiria miniata

Emerging infectious disease in sea stars: castrating ciliate parasites in Patiria miniata

Conservation of sequence in the internal transcribed spacers and 5.8S ribosomal RNA among geographically separated isolates of parasitic scuticociliates (Ciliophora, Orchitophryidae)

Echinoderms

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