Crown-of-Thorns starfish excretory/secretory proteins under aggregation and alarm

The Crown-of-Thorns starfish (COTS), Acanthaster planci, is a highly fecund predator of reef-building corals distributed throughout the Indo-Pacific. COTS population outbreaks cause substantial loss of coral cover, diminishing the integrity and resilience of the reef ecosystems thus increasing their susceptibility to climate change. We sequenced genomes of A. planci from the Great Barrier Reef, Australia (GBR) and Okinawa, Japan (OKI) to guide identification of species-specific peptide communication with potential applications in mitigation strategies. The genome-encoded proteins excreted and secreted into the surrounding seawater by COTS forming aggregations and by those escaping the predatory giant triton snail, Charonia tritonis, were identified LC-MS/MS.