Biocontrol of crown-of-thorns starfish using genomics and proteomics

该项目旨在解决棘冠海星（COTS）的破坏性爆发，这是一种贪婪的珊瑚捕食者，也是珊瑚礁的主要威胁。该项目以最近对COTS基因组和蛋白质组的测序为基础，以确定吸引COTS彼此的交流因素。基于这些天然引诱剂，该项目将制作COTS专用诱饵，以供未来大规模部署。目前，COTS是使用昂贵的基于潜水员的方法挑选的。该项目的成果预计将增加，如果不是减轻，这些低效的生物控制方法，并提供一个环境友好和可扩展的解决方案，以应对大堡礁和全球珊瑚礁健康和恢复力的最大威胁之一。

This project aims to address destructive outbreaks of the crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS), a voracious predator of corals and a major threat to coral reefs. This project builds upon recent sequencing of COTS genome and proteomes to identify communication factors that attract COTS to each other. Based on these natural attractants, the project will fabricate COTS-specific baits for future large scale deployment. Currently COTS are culled using expensive diver-based approaches. Outcomes for this project are expected to augment, if not alleviate, these inefficient biocontrol approaches and provide an environmentally-benign and scalable solution to one of the biggest threats to the health and resilience of the Great Barrier Reef and reefs worldwide.