Sea star wasting disease pathology in Pisaster ochraceus shows a basal-to-surface process affecting color phenotypes differently

Sea star wasting disease (SSWD) refers to a suite of poorly described non-specific clinical signs including abnormal posture, epidermal ulceration, and limb autotomy (sloughing) causing mortalities over 20 species sea stars subsequent ecological shifts throughout the northeastern Pacific. While SSWD is widely assumed be infectious, with environmental conditions facilitating progression, few data exist on cellular changes associated disease. This unfortunate, because such observations could inform mechanisms pathogenesis host susceptibility. Here, we replicated by exposing captive Pisaster ochraceus non-infectious organic substances show that development gross lesions basal-to-surface process involving inflammation (e.g. infiltration coelomocytes) ossicles mutable collagenous tissue, leading ulceration. Affected also manifest increases in heretofore undocumented coelomocyte type, spindle cells, might useful marker this species. Finally, compared purple morphs, orange P. developed more severe but survived longer. Longer-lived, presumably visible, severely-lesioned have important demographic implications terms detectability lesioned animals wild measures apparent prevalence