Densovirus Associated with Sea-star Wasting Disease and Mass Mortality

Authors

Ian Hewson, Cornell University
Jason Button, Cornell University
Brent Gudenkauf, Cornell University
Benjamin Miner, Western Washington University
Alisa Newton, Wildlife Conservation Society
Mya Breitbart, University of South FloridaFollow
Elizabeth Fahsbender, University of South Florida
Kevin Lafferty, University of South Florida

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2014

Keywords

virus, Asteroidea, disease, densovirus, wasting

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1416625111

Abstract

Sea stars inhabiting the Northeast Pacific Coast have recently experienced an extensive outbreak of wasting disease, leading to their degradation and disappearance from many coastal areas. In this paper, we present evidence that the cause of the disease is transmissible from disease-affected animals to apparently healthy individuals, that the disease-causing agent is a virus-sized microorganism, and that the best candidate viral taxon, the sea star-associated densovirus (SSaDV), is in greater abundance in diseased than in healthy sea stars.

Comments

Complete List of Authors:

Ian Hewson, Jason B. Button, Brent M. Gudenkauf, Benjamin Miner, Alisa L. Newton, Joseph K. Gaydos, Janna Wynne, Cathy L. Groves, Gordon Hendler, Michael Murray, Steven Fradkin, Mya Breitbart, Elizabeth Fahsbender, Kevin D. Lafferty, A. Marm Kilpatrick, C. Melissa Miner, Peter Raimondi, Lesanna Lahner, Carolyn S. Friedman, Stephen Daniels, Martin Haulena, Jeffrey Marliave, Colleen A. Burge, Morgan E. Eisenlord, and C. Drew Harvell

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Rights Information

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Was this content written or created while at USF?

Yes

Citation / Publisher Attribution

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, v. 111, no. 48, p. 17278-17283

Scholar Commons Citation

Hewson, Ian; Button, Jason; Gudenkauf, Brent; Miner, Benjamin; Newton, Alisa; Breitbart, Mya; Fahsbender, Elizabeth; and Lafferty, Kevin, "Densovirus Associated with Sea-star Wasting Disease and Mass Mortality" (2014). Marine Science Faculty Publications. 718.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/msc_facpub/718