It has to do with a microorganism called a scuticociliate.
have been mysteriously dying off across the Caribbean since early 2022 and scientists may now know the reason: a single-celled marine microorganism called a scuticociliate.Ian Hewson, a marine microbial ecologist at Cornell University, told the new outlet that the discovery is a little surprising given that “ciliates are not normally seen as agents of mass mortality" but that all roads lead to the organism, Philaster apodigitiformis, infecting the urchins, he said.
“In all of my years of investigating marine diseases, this is the one which we are 100 percent confident about," he added. Hewson’s team analyzed the entire set of active genes of healthy and sick urchins from 23 sites across the Caribbean and found that some of the active genes in the sick urchins’ transcriptomes weren’t from the urchins but from the microorganism.grown in a laboratory in a tank with some of the parasites. Six of the 10 urchins in the tank died.
The scientists are now busy looking for ways to prevent future losses. They are hoping to understand how the parasites spread so they can stop them.However, for now, the researchers still have more questions than answers. For instance, it remains unclear what conditions may have allowed P. apodigitiformis to become so dangerous to the urchins or how the organism causes infection.
Despite the fact that there are currently no available treatments for the disease, understanding the pathogen’s identity may lead to the development of possible prevention options.Hewson’s finds were reinforced by teams in Florida and Hawaii that observed the scuticociliates in the tissues and fluids of sick urchins located particularly in their body walls and at the base of their spines,
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