TY - JOUR
T1 - Arachidonic acid and α-linolenic acid, feeding attractants for the crown-of-thorns sea star Acanthaster planci, from the sea urchin Toxopneustes pileolus
AU - Teruya, Toshiaki
AU - Suenaga, Kiyotake
AU - Koyama, Tomoyuki
AU - Nakano, Yoshikatsu
AU - Uemura, Daisuke
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported in part by Yamada Science Foundation, Wako, Banyu Pharmaceutical, and a Grants-in-Aid (No. 12045235) for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports, and Culture, Japan. We thank Sesoko Station, Tropical Biosphere Research Center, University of the Ryukyus for their assistance. [SS]
PY - 2001/12/10
Y1 - 2001/12/10
N2 - In the tropical zones of the Indo-Pacific Oceans, the crown-of-thorns sea star Acanthaster planci, as the predator of corals, destroys coral reefs. We recently found that viscera of the sea urchin Toxopneustes pileolus produced a feeding attractant for this sea star. Using our simple bioassay system, we isolated arachidonic acid and α-linolenic acid as feeding attractants from T. pileolus. This is the first report about the sea star A. planci being attracted to unsaturated fatty acids. Interestingly, other unsaturated fatty acids such as eicosapentaenoic acid, docosahexaenoic acid and linoleic acid showed no activity. Our preliminary experiments indicated that these attractants have an attractive effect for the sea star both in the aquarium and in the sea. We anticipated that these attractants could be used to control A. planci. In addition, we verified the existence of arachidonic acid in the coral as one of the feeding attractants.
AB - In the tropical zones of the Indo-Pacific Oceans, the crown-of-thorns sea star Acanthaster planci, as the predator of corals, destroys coral reefs. We recently found that viscera of the sea urchin Toxopneustes pileolus produced a feeding attractant for this sea star. Using our simple bioassay system, we isolated arachidonic acid and α-linolenic acid as feeding attractants from T. pileolus. This is the first report about the sea star A. planci being attracted to unsaturated fatty acids. Interestingly, other unsaturated fatty acids such as eicosapentaenoic acid, docosahexaenoic acid and linoleic acid showed no activity. Our preliminary experiments indicated that these attractants have an attractive effect for the sea star both in the aquarium and in the sea. We anticipated that these attractants could be used to control A. planci. In addition, we verified the existence of arachidonic acid in the coral as one of the feeding attractants.
KW - Acanthaster planci
KW - Arachidonic acid
KW - Coral reefs
KW - Feeding attractant
KW - Toxopneustes pileolus
KW - α-Linolenic acid
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U2 - 10.1016/S0022-0981(01)00337-9
DO - 10.1016/S0022-0981(01)00337-9
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0035842168
SN - 0022-0981
VL - 266
SP - 123
EP - 134
JO - Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology
JF - Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology
IS - 2
ER -