In collaboration with Australian and US researchers, a team at OIST has solved the genome of the crown-of-thorns starfish, an important coral reef pest, in an attempt to identify gene products that underlie species-specific communication and could potentially be used in biocontrol strategies. Insights into COTS-specific communication was obtained that may guide the generation of peptide mimetics for use on reefs with COTS outbreaks.
OIST news release, April 6, 2017, https://www.oist.jp/news-center/press-releases/dna-coral-reef-predator
Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) participates in decoding the genome of starfish, a coral reef pest