Echinaster luzonicus

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Luzon sea star
Coeloplana astericola (Benthic ctenophores) on Echniaster luzonicus (Seastar).jpg
Coeloplana astericola on Echinaster luzonicus
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Echinodermata
Class: Asteroidea
Order: Spinulosida
Family: Echinasteridae
Genus: Echinaster
Species:
E. luzonicus
Binomial name
Echinaster luzonicus
(Gray, 1840) [1]
Synonyms [1]
  • Echinaster affinis Perrier, 1869
  • Echinaster eridanella Muller & Troschel, 1842
  • Echinaster multipapillatus Hoffman in Rowe, 1974
  • Henricia multipapillata (Hoffman, 1874)
  • Othilia eridanella (Muller & Troschel, 1942)
  • Othilia luzonica Gray, 1840

Echinaster luzonicus, the Luzon sea star, [2] is a species of starfish in the family Echinasteridae, [1] found in shallow parts of the western Indo-Pacific region. It sometimes lives symbiotically with a copepod or a comb jelly, and is prone to shed its arms, which then regenerate into new individuals.

Contents

Description

Echinaster luzonicus is normally a six-armed starfish but is often rather asymmetrical in appearance because of its habit of shedding arms. It is somewhat variable in colouring, ranging from red to dark brown. Both these colour morphs were collected off Heron Island in the Great Barrier Reef, and individuals seemed able to change their colour from red to brown and back again, possibly as a response to the amount of ambient light they received. [3]

Distribution and habitat

Echinaster luzonicus is found in the tropical and sub-tropical western Indo-Pacific region. Its range extending from Madagascar and the east coast of Africa to Northern Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines. A common species, it is found on both reef crests and in the intertidal zone. [3]

Ecology

Echinaster luzonicus feeds on bacterial and algal films that it extracts from the sediment. [4] This species is unique in its genus in that it reproduces asexually by autotomizing its arms; the shed arm then regenerates, growing a new disc and further arms. [5] This species has not been recorded breeding in any other way. [5]

A species of copepod, lives symbiotically on the oral (under) surface of Echinaster luzonicus; it is so cryptically coloured as to be almost indistinguishable from its host. [6] Another associate of this starfish is the comb jelly, Coeloplana astericola , which grows in abundance on its aboral (upper) surface. [7] Three symbionts recorded on E. luzonicus was the ectoparasitic snail Melanella martinii (A. Adams in Sowerby, 1854), followed by the pontoniine shrimp Zenopontonia soror (Nobili, 1904) and the polychaete scaleworm Asterophilia carlae Hanley, 1989 in the waters of a volcanic island. [8]

Research

A novel cyclic steroid glycoside has been isolated from the tissues of Echinaster luzonicus and has been named luzonicoside A. [9] Four further cyclic glycosides containing carbohydrate fragments have since been named luzonicosides B to E; luzonicoside F, another glycoside, is an open carbohydrate chain steroid. These metabolites exhibit varying degrees of lysosomal activity. [10]

Related Research Articles

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Starfish or sea stars are star-shaped echinoderms belonging to the class Asteroidea. Common usage frequently finds these names being also applied to ophiuroids, which are correctly referred to as brittle stars or basket stars. Starfish are also known as asteroids due to being in the class Asteroidea. About 1,900 species of starfish live on the seabed in all the world's oceans, from warm, tropical zones to frigid, polar regions. They are found from the intertidal zone down to abyssal depths, at 6,000 m (20,000 ft) below the surface.

<i>Linckia laevigata</i> Species of starfish

Linckia laevigata is a species of sea star in the shallow waters of tropical Indo-Pacific.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Echinasteridae</span> Family of starfishes

The Echinasteridae are a family of starfish in the monotypic order Spinulosida. The family includes eight genera and about 133 species found on the seabed in various habitats around the world.

<i>Astropecten polyacanthus</i> Species of starfish

Astropecten polyacanthus, the sand sifting starfish or comb sea star, is a sea star of the family Astropectinidae. It is the most widespread species in the genus Astropecten, found throughout the Indo-Pacific region. The armspread is up to 20 cm (8 in). The specific epithet "polyacanthus" comes from the Latin meaning "many thorned".

<i>Linckia guildingi</i> Species of starfish

Linckia guildingi, also called the common comet star, Guilding's sea star or the green Linckia, is a species of sea star reported from the shallow waters of the tropical Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goniasteridae</span> Family of starfishes

Goniasteridae constitute the largest family of sea stars, included in the order Valvatida. They are mostly deep-dwelling species, but the family also include several colorful shallow tropical species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orange knobby star</span> Species of starfish

The orange knobby star, Echinaster echinophorus, is a species of sea star found in the Caribbean Sea and along the Atlantic coast of South America.

<i>Echinaster spinulosus</i> Species of starfish

Echinaster spinulosus, the small spine sea star, is a species of sea star found in shallow parts of the western Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico.

<i>Luidia quinaria</i> Species of starfish

The spiny sand seastar is a species of starfish in the family Luidiidae. It is found in shallow parts of the China Sea and in the vicinity of the Korean archipelago. The tissues of this starfish have been found to contain several secondary metabolites with medicinal potential.

<i>Aquilonastra conandae</i> Species of starfish

Aquilonastra conandae is a species of starfish from the family Asterinidae found near the Mascarene Islands in the Indian Ocean. It is known for its asexual reproduction and is fissiparous. It is a small starfish, discrete and camouflaged, and occurs in coral reefs in the surf zone of large waves. The species was described in 2006 by Australian marine biologists P. Mark O'Loughlin and Francis Winston Edric Rowe, and gets its name from Chantal Conand.

<i>Neoferdina cumingi</i> Species of starfish

Neoferdina cumingi, also known as Cuming's sea star, is a species of starfish in the family Goniasteridae. It is native to the tropical Indo-Pacific region.

<i>Patiria chilensis</i> Species of starfish

Patiria chilensis is a species of starfish in the family Asterinidae. It is found in the southeastern Pacific Ocean along the coasts of South America. It is a broadly pentagonal, cushion-like starfish with five short arms.

<i>Stichaster striatus</i> Species of echinoderm

Stichaster striatus, the common light striated star, is a species of starfish in the family Stichasteridae, found in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. It was first described by the German zoologists Johannes Peter Müller and Franz Hermann Troschel in 1840.

<i>Luidia magellanica</i> Species of starfish

Luidia magellanica is a species of starfish in the family Luidiidae. It is found in the southeastern Pacific Ocean on the coast of South America.

<i>Meyenaster</i> Genus of starfishes

Meyenaster is a genus of starfish in the family Asteriidae. It is a monotypic genus and the only species is Meyenaster gelatinosus which was first described by the Prussian botanist and zoologist Franz Julius Ferdinand Meyen in 1834. It is found in the southeastern Pacific Ocean on the coasts of South America.

<i>Coeloplana astericola</i> Species of comb jelly

Coeloplana astericola, the creeping comb jelly, is a species of benthic comb jelly from the tropical western Indo-Pacific region that lives as an episymbiont on starfish such as Echinaster luzonicus.

<i>Echinaster callosus</i> Species of starfish

Echinaster callosus, the warty sea star or the banded bubble star, is a species of starfish found in shallow parts of the western Indo-Pacific region. The disc and five slender arms are covered with white, pink, red or violet warts, often forming transverse bands of colour on the arms.

<i>Euretaster insignis</i> Species of starfish

Euretaster insignis, commonly known as the striking sea star, is a species of starfish in the family Pterasteridae found in the central west Pacific Ocean. It is one of only three species in the order Velatida to be found in shallow water in the tropics. The young are brooded in a cavity underneath a "supradorsal" membrane.

<i>Echinaster</i> Genus of starfishes

Echinaster is a well-studied and common genus of starfish containing ~30 species and is the second-largest genus found within the family Echinasteridae. The genera Henricia and Echinaster encompass 90% of all the species found within the family Echinasteridae. It contains 30 species, however the number of species in this genus is still debatable because of uncertainty within the genera. This genus is currently sub-divided into two sub-genera: Echinaster and Othilia, evolutionary relationships between the sub-genera is not understood. Echinaster are found in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans, with most species being studied in the Gulf of Mexico and Brazil. The sub-genera Othilia is thought to encompass species mainly found in the Gulf of Mexico and Brazil. Echinaster is often one of the most studied species within the family Echinasteridae and is often used to find evolutionary relationships.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Starfish regeneration</span> Star-shaped organisms

Starfish, or sea stars, are radially symmetrical, star-shaped organisms of the phylum Echinodermata and the class Asteroidea. Aside from their distinguishing shape, starfish are most recognized for their remarkable ability to regenerate, or regrow, arms and, in some cases, entire bodies. While most species require the central body to be intact in order to regenerate arms, a few tropical species can grow an entirely new starfish from just a portion of a severed limb. Starfish regeneration across species follows a common three-phase model and can take up to a year or longer to complete. Though regeneration is used to recover limbs eaten or removed by predators, starfish are also capable of autotomizing and regenerating limbs to evade predators and reproduce.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Mah, Christopher (2018). Mah CL (ed.). "Echinaster luzonicus (Gray, 1840)". World Asteroidea database. World Register of Marine Species . Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  2. ↑ "Echinaster luzonicus: Luzon sea star". EoL. Retrieved 4 July 2018.
  3. 1 2 Jackson, Ellen (2012). "Echinaster luzonicus (Gray, 1840)". Invertebrates of the Coral Sea. University of Queensland. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  4. ↑ Jangoux, Michel; Lawrence, John M. (1982). Echinoderm Nutrition. CRC Press. p. 130. ISBN   978-90-6191-080-0.
  5. 1 2 Lawrence, John M. (2013). Starfish: Biology and Ecology of the Asteroidea. JHU Press. pp. 208–209. ISBN   978-1-4214-0787-6.
  6. ↑ O'Hara, Timothy; Byrne, Maria (2017). Australian Echinoderms: Biology, Ecology and Evolution. Csiro Publishing. p. 60. ISBN   978-1-4863-0763-0.
  7. ↑ Barel, C.D.N.; Kramers, P.G.N. (1977). "A survey of the echinoderm associates of the north-east Atlantic area". Zoologische Verhandelingen. 156: 1–159 [4].
  8. ↑ Tseng, Li-Chun; Limviriyakul, Parinya; Hwang, Jiang-Shiou (2022-11-30). Yang, Wan-Xi (ed.). "Macrosymbionts of starfish Echinaster luzonicus (Gray, 1840) in the waters of a volcanic western Pacific island". PLOS ONE. 17 (11): e0278288. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0278288 . ISSN   1932-6203. PMC   9710757 .
  9. ↑ Fortschritte der Chemie organischer Naturstoffe / Progress in the Chemistry of Organic Natural Products. Springer Science & Business Media. 2012. p. 142. ISBN   978-3-7091-9250-4.
  10. ↑ Kicha, Alla A.; Kalinovsky, Anatoly I.; Malyarenko, Timofey V.; Ivanchina, Natalia V.; Dmitrenok, Pavel S.; Menchinskaya, Ekaterina S.; Yurchenko, Ekaterina A.; Pislyagin, Evgeny A.; Aminin, Dmitry L.; Huong, Trinh T.T.; Long, Pham Quoc; Stonik, Valentin A. (2015). "Cyclic Steroid Glycosides from the Starfish Echinaster luzonicus: Structures and Immunomodulatory Activities". Journal of Natural Products. 78 (6): 1397–1405. doi:10.1021/acs.jnatprod.5b00332. PMID   26068600.
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