Sea Star Wasting Syndrome

"Sea star wasting syndrome" (SSWS) is a disease that affects many species of sea stars, causing them to lose turgor pressure until they eventually rip apart and turn into white puddles of goo. The origins of this disease are still uncertain, and while most researchers suspect that it is caused by a virus, other scientists like Melissa Pespeni from the University of Vermont think that SSWS is caused by a combination of environmental and genetic circumstances. Pespeni and her team studied the genome of the microbiota present in healthy and sick sea stars, and exposed a group of 37 healthy sea stars to SSWS in order to record the progression of the disease. Only 8 sea stars remained healthy after the experiment, and the results showed that their microbiomes change as the disease settles in, decreasing the numbers of beneficial bacteria in the Pseudoalteromonas genus and leading the way for opportunistic pathogens to cause more damage in the tissues. Pespeni argues that SSWS is most likely caused by pollution particles that disrupt the microbiome of healthy sea stars, allowing for the virus to attack their weakened immune systems.