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Quantifying shedding and degradation rates of environmental DNA (eDNA) from Pacific crown-of-thorns seastar (Acanthaster cf. solaris)

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Abstract

Population outbreaks of the corallivorous crown-of-thorns seastar (CoTS; Acanthaster spp.) are significant threats to the Indo-Pacific reefs. Although recent research demonstrated that environmental DNA (eDNA) techniques could improve CoTS monitoring, the interpretation of surveillance results has been limited by uncertainties about eDNA dynamics. Here, we conducted aquarium experiments to identify biotic and abiotic factors affecting the shedding and degradation rates of CoTS eDNA. In the first experiment, we investigated the effect of two temperatures (24 and 28 °C) and three feeding treatments (no coral, coral accessible and coral inaccessible) on eDNA shedding rate of laboratory-raised 8-month-old juvenile CoTS. In the second experiment, we quantified CoTS eDNA degradation rate under three temperatures (24, 26 and 28 °C). We found that eDNA shedding rate was affected by feeding treatment (p < 0.0001) but not temperature. Specifically, the shedding rate under coral accessible treatment was about seven times higher than that of coral inaccessible treatment (p < 0.0001), whereas the presence of coral reduced the shedding rate by half (coral inaccessible vs no coral, p = 0.0249). Degradation of CoTS eDNA was rapid (half-life = 14 h) and not affected by temperature. Our results demonstrated that feeding activity increased eDNA release, but some of the released DNA was lost, potentially due to binding to coral surface mucus layer or skeleton. The rapid degradation rate indicated that results of eDNA surveillance likely reflects recent and local occurrence of CoTS. Although further testing is needed, this study provided support for using eDNA as a novel detection tool for early life stages of CoTS on coral reefs.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the AIMS SeaSim team for technical support. Funding for this research was provided by the Australian Institute of Marine Science. The contribution of Cecilia Villacorta-Rath was funded through the Australian Commonwealth Government’s National Environmental Science Program – Northern Australia Environmental Resources Hub, Project 4.3.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia

    Sarah L. T. Kwong

  2. Australian Institute of Marine Science, PMB No. 3, Townsville MC, QLD, 4810, Australia

    Sarah L. T. Kwong, Jason Doyle & Sven Uthicke

  3. TropWATER – Centre for Tropical Water and Aquatic Ecosystem Research, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD, 4811, Australia

    Cecilia Villacorta-Rath

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  1. Sarah L. T. Kwong
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  2. Cecilia Villacorta-Rath
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Contributions

All authors jointly conceived and planned the experiment. SK collected the data with methodological support from JD, conducted statistical analysis with support from SU, and interpreted the data with input from SU and CVR. SK wrote the manuscript with feedback from the other authors.

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Correspondence to Sarah L. T. Kwong.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

Collections were conducted under a permit from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (Permit No. G38062.1). Ethical approval under Australian legislation is not required for invertebrates used in this study.

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Kwong, S.L.T., Villacorta-Rath, C., Doyle, J. et al. Quantifying shedding and degradation rates of environmental DNA (eDNA) from Pacific crown-of-thorns seastar (Acanthaster cf. solaris). Mar Biol 168, 85 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-021-03896-x

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