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Fulltext Biology of Incidental Catch Sea Star Stellaster childreni Gray, 1840 (Echinodermata: Asteroidea), from Malaysian Borneo Exclusive Economic Zone

Hassan R, Lee SY, Morni WZW

ScientificWorldJournal, 2017;2017:1489360.
PMID: 28695188 DOI: 10.1155/2017/1489360

Sea star (class Asteroidea, phylum Echinodermata) is one of the most successful marine organisms inhabiting a wide range of habitats. As one of the key stone species, sea stars are responsible for maintaining much of the local diversity of species within certain communities. Malaysian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) Resource Survey had been carried out from 16th Aug to 6th Nov 2015 and one of the invertebrate by-catch organisms is sea star Stellaster childreni Gray, 1840. This study documents morphological characters and diet of the sea star, besides providing brief descriptions of the habitats based on particle size analysis and vessel log data sheet. A total of 217 individuals had been examined throughout this study. Fragments of flora and fauna were found in the gut including Mollusca (gastropod, bivalves, and scaphopods), sponge seagrass, and seaweed as well as benthic Foraminifera. Stellaster childreni were found at depth of 45 m to 185 m in the South China Sea off Sarawak Malaysia, with various sea bottom substrata. Approximately 41% of S. childreni were found at a mixture of sandy and muddy substratum, followed by mixture of sandy and coral (19.3%), muddy substratum (17.5%), coral substratum (11.5%), and sandy areas (10.6%). The widely distributed sea star on different types of sea beds suggested healthy deep sea ecosystem; thus Malaysia should explore further potential fisheries resources in the EEZ off Sarawak coast.

Matched MeSH terms: Starfish/physiology*
THREE-DECADE changes of reef cover in Pulau Layang-Layang, Malaysia using multitemporal Landsat images

Han DHT, James D, Waheed Z, Phua MH

Mar Environ Res, 2024 May;197:106454.
PMID: 38552455 DOI: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2024.106454

Over the years, coral reefs in the South China Sea have degraded and faced severe threats from rapid development, coral bleaching, and Crown-of-Thorns Starfish (COTS) outbreak. There is limited knowledge relating to the effects of anthropogenic disturbances and natural events on the coral reefs of Pulau Layang-Layang. This study aims to assess reef cover changes by utilizing Landsat satellite images spanning from 1989 to 2022. Using the object-based image analysis method, this study classified the reef cover into three categories: coral, rock and rubble, and sand. The supervised classification had an overall accuracy of 86.41-87.38 % and Tau's coefficients of 0.80-0.81. The results showed island development and construction of artificial bird sanctuary have led to an increase in coral cover. Furthermore, it was illustrated that the impact of COTS outbreaks in 2010 and 2020 differed significantly, with the latter showing no signs of recovery. Our study underscores the importance of timely intervention to mitigate the spread of COTS. This study provides insights into the resilience and vulnerability of these ecosystems in the face of various stressors.

Matched MeSH terms: Starfish
Fulltext Scleractinian corals (Fungiidae, Agariciidae and Euphylliidae) of Pulau Layang-Layang, Spratly Islands, with a note on Pavonamaldivensis (Gardiner, 1905)

Waheed Z, Benzoni F, van der Meij SE, Terraneo TI, Hoeksema BW

Zookeys, 2015.
PMID: 26312025 DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.517.9308

Layang-Layang is a small island part of an oceanic atoll in the Spratly Islands off Sabah, Malaysia. As the reef coral fauna in this part of the South China Sea is poorly known, a survey was carried out in 2013 to study the species composition of the scleractinian coral families Fungiidae, Agariciidae and Euphylliidae. A total of 56 species was recorded. The addition of three previously reported coral species brings the total to 59, consisting of 32 Fungiidae, 22 Agariciidae, and five Euphylliidae. Of these, 32 species are new records for Layang-Layang, which include five rarely reported species, i.e., the fungiids Lithophyllonranjithi, Podabaciasinai, Sandalolithaboucheti, and the agariciids Leptoseriskalayaanensis and Leptoseristroglodyta. The coral fauna of Layang-Layang is poor compared to other areas in Sabah, which may be related to its recovery from a crown-of-thorns seastar outbreak in 2010, and its low habitat diversity, which is dominated by reef slopes consisting of steep outer walls. Based on integrative molecular and morphological analyses, a Pavona variety with small and extremely thin coralla was revealed as Pavonamaldivensis. Since specimens from Sabah previously identified as Pavonamaldivensis were found to belong to Pavonaexplanulata, the affinities and distinctions of Pavonamaldivensis and Pavonaexplanulata are discussed.

Matched MeSH terms: Starfish
Fulltext Induction of Apoptosis by Acanthaster planci sp., and Diadema setosum sp., Fractions in Human Cervical Cancer Cell Line, HeLa

Chaudhry GE, Islamiah M, Zafar MN, Bakar K, Aziz N, Saidin J, et al.

Asian Pac J Cancer Prev, 2021 May 01;22(5):1365-1373.
PMID: 34048163 DOI: 10.31557/APJCP.2021.22.5.1365

Cancer is an uncontrolled multiplication of cells. The desire efficacy and severe toxicity of current anticancer drugs urge exploring and investigating a better alternative to existing chemotherapeutics. Natural products of marine origin are excellent sources of potential new drugs of enhanced biological activities.
OBJECTIVES: Thus, the cytotoxic effects along with investigating the mode of cell death exerted by fractions, AP-9, AP-THR, DS-8 and DS-9 fraction of Acanthaster planci, Diadema setosum sp., on the human cervical cancer cell line, HeLa.
METHODS: The cytotoxicity of fractions has determined by using an MTS assay. The early and late apoptosis was studied by using the High content Screening (HCS) instrument.
RESULTS: The four fractions produced effective cytotoxicity effects with IC50 values at 72hr of less than 20 μg/ml in the order of AP-9 > DS-9 > APTHR-9 > DS-8. The fraction s exhibited cytotoxicity via mediating apoptotic mode of cell death. The early apoptosis by exposure of phosphatidylserine to the outer leaflet of the plasma membrane and late apoptosis due to the presence of green stain (DNA fragmentation) in treated cells.
CONCLUSION: The potent bioactive compounds might be responsible for inducing apoptosis in cancer cells and, thus, the potential to be a successful candidate for exploring upcoming chemotherapeutic drugs.

Matched MeSH terms: Starfish/chemistry*
Fulltext Extraction and characterization of pepsin-solubilized collagen from the body wall of crown-of-thorns Starfish (Acanthaster planci)

Tan, C. C., Karim, A. A., Latiff, A. A., Gan, C. Y., Ghazali, F. C.

International Food Research Journal, 2013;20(6):3013-3020.
MyJurnal

Pepsin-solubilized collagen (PSC) was extracted from the body wall of crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) (Acanthaster planci) using pepsin digestion in 0.5 M acetic acid. The electrophoretic pattern of PSC showed that it consisted of two α chains (α1 and α2 chains). In addition, the peptide mapping showed that there were some differences in peptide patterns among PSC, calf skin collagen and salmon skin collagen. This suggested that the primary structure of the PSC was different from calf skin collagen and salmon skin collagen. Furthermore, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) investigation showed the existence of triple helical structure in PSC, suggesting that the triple helical structure was well preserved during the extraction of collagen from COTS. The denaturation temperature of PSC was 33.0°C, which was comparable with mammalian collagen. In addition, the amino acid composition analysis showed that the imino acid content of PSC was similar to mammalian collagen but it was higher than other marine collagen. This suggested that the imino acid content might contributed the denaturation temperature of collagen. The results in this study suggest that PSC from the underutilized COTS has potential to be exploited in various commercial applications.

Matched MeSH terms: Starfish
Evaluation of anti-cancer activity of Acanthester planci extracts obtained by different methods of extraction

Mutee AF, Salhimi SM, Ghazali FC, Aisha AF, Lim CP, Ibrahim K, et al.

Pak J Pharm Sci, 2012 Oct;25(4):697-703.
PMID: 23009983

Acanthaster planci, the crown-of-thorns starfish, naturally endowed with the numerous toxic spines around the dorsal area of its body. Scientific investigations demonstrated several toxico-pharmacological efficacies of A. planci such as, myonecrotic activity, hemorrhagic activity, hemolytic activity, mouse lethality, phospholipase A2 (PLA2) activity, capillary permeability-increasing activity, edema-forming activity, anticoagulant activity and histamine-releasing activity from mast cells. The present study was performed to evaluate the cytotoxic activity of A. planci extracts obtained by different methods of extraction on MCF-7 and HCT-116, human breast and colon cancer cell lines, respectively. Results of the cell proliferation assay showed that PBS extract exhibited very potent cytotoxic activity against both MCF-7 and HCT-116 cell lines with IC(50) of 13.48 μg/mL and 28.78 μg/mL, respectively, while the extracts prepared by Bligh and Dyer method showed moderate cytotoxicity effect against MCF-7 and HCT-116 cell lines, for chloroform extract, IC(50) = 121.37 μg/mL (MCF-7) and 77.65 μg/mL (HCT-116), and for methanol extract, IC(50) = 46.11 μg/mL (MCF-7) and 59.29 μg/mL (HCT-116). However, the extracts prepared by sequential extraction procedure from dried starfish found to be ineffective. This study paves the way for further investigation on the peptide composition in the PBS extract of the starfish to discover potential chemotherapeutic agents.

Matched MeSH terms: Starfish/chemistry*