A scuticociliate causes mass mortality of Diadema antillarum in the Caribbean Sea

Ian Hewson; Isabella T. Ritchie; James S. Evans; Ashley Altera; Donald Behringer; Erin Bowman; Marilyn E. Brandt; Kayla A. Budd; Ruleo A. Camacho; Tomas O. Cornwell; Peter D. Countway; Aldo Croquer; Gabriel A. Delgado; Christopher M. DeRito; Elizabeth Duermit-Moreau; Ruth Francis-Floyd; Samuel Gittens; Leslie Henderson; Alwin Hylkema; Christina A. Kellogg; Yasu Kiryu; Kimani A. Kitson-Walters; Patricia Kramer; Judith C. Lang; Harilaos Lessios; Lauren Liddy; David Marancik; Stephen Nimrod; Joshua T. Patterson; Marit Pistor; Isabel C. Romero; Rita Sellares-Blasco; Moriah L. B. Sevier; William C. Sharp; Matthew Souza; Andreina Valdez-Trinidad; Marijn van der Laan; Brayan Vilanova-Cuevas; Maria Villalpando; Sarah D. Von Hoene; Matthew Warham; Tom Wijers; Stacey M. Williams; Thierry M. Work; Roy P. Yanong; Someira Zambrano; Alizee Zimmermann; Mya Breitbart

doi:10.1126/sciadv.adg3200

A scuticociliate causes mass mortality of Diadema antillarum in the Caribbean Sea

Science Advances

By: Ian Hewson, Isabella T. Ritchie, James S. Evans, Ashley Altera, Donald Behringer, Erin Bowman, Marilyn E. Brandt, Kayla A. Budd, Ruleo A. Camacho, Tomas O. Cornwell, Peter D. Countway, Aldo Croquer, Gabriel A. Delgado, Christopher M. DeRito, Elizabeth Duermit-Moreau, Ruth Francis-Floyd, Samuel Gittens, Leslie Henderson, Alwin Hylkema, Christina A. Kellogg, Yasu Kiryu, Kimani A. Kitson-Walters, Patricia Kramer, Judith C. Lang, Harilaos Lessios, Lauren Liddy, David Marancik, Stephen Nimrod, Joshua T. Patterson, Marit Pistor, Isabel C. Romero, Rita Sellares-Blasco, Moriah L. B. Sevier, William C. Sharp, Matthew Souza, Andreina Valdez-Trinidad, Marijn van der Laan, Brayan Vilanova-Cuevas, Maria Villalpando, Sarah D. Von Hoene, Matthew Warham, Tom Wijers, Stacey M. Williams, Thierry M. Work, Roy P. Yanong, Someira Zambrano, Alizee Zimmermann, and Mya Breitbart

https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adg3200

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Abstract

Echinoderm mass mortality events shape marine ecosystems by altering the dynamics among major benthic groups. The sea urchin Diadema antillarum, virtually extirpated in the Caribbean in the early 1980s by an unknown cause, recently experienced another mass mortality beginning in January 2022. We investigated the cause of this mass mortality event through combined molecular biological and veterinary pathologic approaches comparing grossly normal and abnormal animals collected from 23 sites, representing locations that were either affected or unaffected at the time of sampling. Here, we report that a scuticociliate most similar to Philaster apodigitiformis was consistently associated with abnormal urchins at affected sites but was absent from unaffected sites. Experimentally challenging naïve urchins with a Philaster culture isolated from an abnormal, field-collected specimen resulted in gross signs consistent with those of the mortality event. The same ciliate was recovered from treated specimens postmortem, thus fulfilling Koch’s postulates for this microorganism. We term this condition D. antillarum scuticociliatosis.

Suggested Citation

Hewson, I., Ritchie, I.T., Evans, J.S., Altera, A., Behringer, D., Bowman, E., Brandt, M.E., Budd, K.A., Camacho, R.A., Cornwell, T.O., Countway, P.D., Croquer, A., Delgado, G.A., DeRito, C.M., Duermit-Moreau, E., Francis-Floyd, R., Gittens, S., Henderson, L., Hylkema, A., Kellogg, C.A., Kiryu, Y., Kitson-Walters, K.A., Kramer, P., Lang, J.C., Lessios, H., Liddy, L., Marancik, D., Nimrod, S., Patterson, J.T., Pistor, M., Romero, I.C., Sellares-Blasco, R., Sevier, M.L., Sharp, W.C., Souza, M., Valdez-Trinidad, A., van der Laan, M., Vilanova-Cuevas, B., Villalpando, M., Von Hoene, S.D., Warham, M., Wijers, T., Williams, S.M., Work, T.M., Yanong, R.P., Zambrano, S., Zimmermann, A., Breitbart, M., 2023, A scuticociliate causes mass mortality of Diadema antillarum in the Caribbean Sea: Science Advances, v. 9, no. 16, eadg320, 10 p., https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adg3200.

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Additional publication details
Publication type	Article
Publication Subtype	Journal Article
Title	A scuticociliate causes mass mortality of Diadema antillarum in the Caribbean Sea
Series title	Science Advances
DOI	10.1126/sciadv.adg3200
Volume	9
Issue	16
Year Published	2023
Language	English
Publisher	Science
Contributing office(s)	National Wildlife Health Center, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center
Description	eadg320, 10 p.
Other Geospatial	Caribbean Sea