The mystery fought spent billions of sea stars. Biologists only solve the issue.

Columbo, eat your heart outside: A team of scientists has resolved the mystery of the massive sea killing, and he ignored the perpetrator behind the death of billions of sea stars over the past decade.

In a new study, researchers in the United States and Canada argue that the cousin of cholera is the bacterial of the epidemic. Through a series of experiences that involve both wild and families Sea starsThey found evidence of this Vibrio Pectenicida It is a possible cause of wasting marine stars – a devastating state that mainly causes invertebrates to decay and “melting”.

The team’s results seem to be well supported by evidence, Zach SureezThe biologist specialized in sea stars in the marine biological laboratory that did not participate in the study told Gizmodo.

“This study is definitely going to me the smell for me. This looks quite convincing V. Pectenicida Sureez said the bacteria are at least one causal agent of SSWS.

Sea stars began to disappear in 2013, when a A huge outbreak of SSWD The coast of the Pacific Ocean in North America. The disease invaded the seas from Alaska to Mexico, where it destroys more than 20 different species of sea stars, which is also known as Starfish. Infected creatures first develop clear lesions on their skin, then their tissues begin to slope. Death by SSWD is often fast, The star of the sea was killed Within days.

There has been the other comprehensive sea star in recent decades, but the huge scope and spread of this fascism made it the largest seaport has ever recorded in the wilderness. Researchers estimate that a certain type of marine stars, Pycnopodia Helianthoides90 % of its population lost to SSWD. It also greatly changed the environments in which sea stars have flourished once. In the wake of the SSWD outbreak, some areas also lost sea forests, where the seafood – which were kept verified by the sea stars – in forming the underwater forests.

Bahron scientists have been looking for the cause of SSWD since its appearance. Like any great puzzle, there were some transformations. In 2014, a research team Published A paper argued in SSWD. But subsequent studies Show This virus – or any virus is likely to be the nurse in this regard – can only be found in a minority of affected species, which excludes it as the suspect.

Surgez noticed that some Vibrio However, it was already known that bacteria caused a disease in Xinodrem – the wide range of marine invertebrates that include sea stars. “Therefore, it seems that the answer was hiding directly under our noses. It is completely logical,” he said. Several types of Vibrio Humans can also get sick, including cholera (Vibrio Cholerae)).

The researchers did not initiate this study V. Pectenicida Considering from the beginning. They comprehensively studied samples of the sea stars with SSWD and healthy samples, in the end they found that only sick sea stars carried high levels of bacteria in the audio fluid (invertebrate version of the blood). The researchers then managed to isolate and plant new groups of bacteria collected from the sick sea stars. When they revealed the sound stars of the sea of these bacteria, creatures evolved quickly and died from SSWD.

These experiments are the same type used to define and show a certain bacterium that leads to a specific disease in humans, which enhances the team’s issue. More analysis also revealed that SSWD is caused by a specific strain of bacteria, called FHCF-3.

“Here we use controlled exposure experiments, genetic data groups, and field notes to demonstrate that bacteria, and Pectenicida Ferrio FHCF-3, are a causal agent for SSWD,” the authors wrote in their paper, Published Monday in ecology, nature and development.

Although the puzzle of the reasons that show SSWD was solved, Swartz and study authors notice that there are still many important questions that have not been answered. For example, scientists are not completely sure how to start the disease. Bacteria can spread through the joint SEA Stars food, or through physical contact with other sea stars. Low levels of bacteria may be always circulated in the environment, but it becomes only a big problem under specific conditions, such as a certain temperature (Vibrio Bacteria in general flourish in warmer water).

However, given that SSWD is still a threat to the stars of the sea, knowing its case can enhance the efforts to restore the stars of the sea, the researchers said. It may be possible to find genetic mutations that help marine stars to exclude these infections, for example, enabling scientists to raise the stars of the sea that carry these mutations in captivity in order to re -enter them into the wild to enhance the elasticity of the population.