A starfish is an amazing creature. Like many multicellular organisms, it begins life as a single-cell egg that divides and develops through a complex program executed by identically programmed cells. Throughout its life, the starfish functions as a whole, even though it’s essentially a colony of cells that are constantly dying and being replaced. But even more remarkable is its ability to self-...

Enzyme polymorphism was studied in the populations of two tropical starfish species, Acanthaster planci of the family Acanthasteridae and Echinaster luzonicus of the Echinasteridae from Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa) in Japan by allozyme analysis of 11 different enzymes. In 35 genetic loci scored, the proportion of polymorphic loci(P)was 12.5% and 22.9%, the average heterozygosity per locus(H)was 6.1...

The starfish Narcissia canariensis harvested from the coasts off Dakar, Senegal, was investigated for glycolipids (GL). This report deals with the isolation, characterization and biological activity of a fraction F13-3 separated from the GL mixture and selected according to its ability to inhibit KB cell proliferation after 72 hours of treatment. Firstly, a GL mixture F13 was obtained that acco...

Aurora, an essential mitotic kinase, is highly conserved during evolution. Most vertebrates have at least two Aurora kinases, Aurora-A and Aurora-B, which have distinct functions in the centrosome-spindle and inner centromere-midbody, respectively. However, some non-vertebrate deuterostomes have only a single Aurora. It remains to be verified whether the single Aurora performs the same function...

Astrosterioside A, a sulfated steroidal hexasaccharide isolated from starfish Astropecten monacanthus showing potent anti-inflammatory activity, was synthesized in a convergent linear sequence of 24 steps and in 6.8% overall yield from adrenosterone.

1. Twenty-two sterols were identified in the starfish Asterias rubens (Phylum, Echinodermata; Class, Asteroidea). 2. The major 4-demethyl sterols had a Delta(7) bond and the C(27) compound 5alpha-cholest-7-en-3beta-ol predominated over other mono- and di-unsaturated sterols belonging to the C(26), C(27), C(28) and C(29) series. 3. Small amounts of cholest-5-en-3beta-ol and 5alpha-cholestan-3bet...

Some species are more equal than others. Robert T. Paine (American ecologist, 1933-2016) discovered that if you remove starfish - what he called a "keystone species" - from a tide pool, the complex ecosystem collapses. Without the predator starfish, mussels choke out other animals and plants. This phenomenon is general. Sea otters eat the sea urchins that eat the kelp that provides food and hab...

The events that occur during chemotaxis of sperm are only partly known. As an essential step toward determining the underlying mechanism, we have recorded Ca2+ dynamics in swimming sperm of marine invertebrates. Stimulation of the sea urchin Arbacia punctulata by the chemoattractant or by intracellular cGMP evokes Ca2+ spikes in the flagellum. A Ca2+ spike elicits a turn in the trajectory follo...