Chamundeeswari et al., Cell Dev Biol 2013, 2:2
http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2168-9296.1000116
Cell & Developmental Biology
Research Article
Open Access
New Occurrence of Abnormal Sea Star, Astropecten indicus from
Mudasalodai, South East Coast of India
K. Chamundeeswari*, S. Saranya, S. Shanker, D. Varadharajan and S. Rajagopal
Faculty of Marine Sciences, Centre of Advanced Study in Marine Biology, Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, India.
Abstract
A marine invertebrate of starish is a most familiar one. It was mainly occur on the seabed and diversity of
starish is remarkable ones. Astropecten sp is not easily identiied organism while a number of species a long-lived
planktotrophic larval stage. As a rule of pentamerism, Astropecten indicus strictly produces only 5 arms but some
time the number was lesser than or greater than ive and shows its abnormality. The reason may be of regeneration
of plate systems which is responsible for forming the whole organs during larval metamorphosis or regenerating the
lost plate systems in the disc in the later stages or due to environmental factors or may be of mutation.
Keywords: Brittle stars, A. indicus, Abnormal arms, Existence
research
Introduction
Sea stars or starishes are the class Asteroidea of phylum
Echinodermata consisting of 1890 species with 36 families and
approximately 370 genera [1]. hey are lattened, mostly pentagonal
free living star-like with ive (sometime more) long or short rays
radiating symmetrically from a central disc. he lower surface is
generally called as oral surface (where mouth is present) and the
upper side (where anus is present) is known as aboral surface. Orally,
a remarkable furrow line in each arm known as ambulacral groove
extending from the peristome to the tip of the rays. hese grooves
are formed by series of plates or ossicles known as ambulacral plates
which has ambulacral pores between it through in which podia held.
Presence of endoskeleton (lexible nature and formed of separated
ossicles) is the important feature in this lower group of invertebrate.
he skeletal arrangement allows for the extension of a comparatively
large coelomic cavity from the central disc into the arms, which serves
to hold gonads and pyloric ceacae. Gonads radially arranged, arms
occupied by digestive glands [2]. Asteroids are not having head, brain,
anterior and posterior regions. hey use sensory cells for identiication
of food and movements. Presence of water vascular system is another
important feature in this group which assists most of the functions
such as locomotion, respiration, food gathering and excretion. hey
use papule a very transparent retractile structure for respiration.
Pedicellariae are pincer-like organ forms variety of structures from
simple modiied spines to highly specialized opposing hooks in some
species capture prey by detecting their presence, usually small ish
or shrimp-like crustaceans on which the sea star feeds. he shape of
pedicellariae is an important characteristic for asteroid taxonomy. Sexes
are separate, some undergoes hermaphroditism and life cycle includes
Bipinaria and Brachiolaria larvae. Some sea stars brood their young,
where females hold their fertilized eggs in a brood space under the
arm in the stomach or incubate them in the gonads. In some cases,
young ones develop internally and escape through gonopores. Asexual
reproduction is another method of development that involves either
ission or regeneration of entire animal from arm parts. Sea stars play
vital role in maintaining benthic community due to their predatory
activities and some of them act as key species [3]. Hence, they used as
model organism in the area of community structure and feeding ecology
[4,5]. his group of invertebrate are the only successive organisms
which has the ability to thrive in various depth ranges from shallow
intertidal zone to deepest region and in all the marine ecosystems.
Asteroids have the feature of regeneration in which the damaged organs
Cell Dev Biol
ISSN: 2168-9296 CDB, an open access journal
can be regenerated quickly. Echinoderms as a rule are pentamerous and
therefore most of the asteroids have only ive arms. However, some of
the asteroids like Luidia maculate and Acanthaster planci and others
always have more than ive arms but in the case of Pentaceraster regulus
and Protoreaster lincki the number of arms may be less than ive or
more than ive due to freak formation at the time of development [6].
Members belonging to the families Ophidiasteridae, Echinasteridae
and some others break their arms either due to injury or by autotomy,
especially when they are disturbed. Sometimes, such specimens
regenerate more number of arms during regeneration. he sea star
A. indicus is a member of order Paxillosida, Family Astropectinidae.
Astropecten species are commonly called as comb star or sand star and
are found in intertidal and subtidal sandy environments. he species
of Astropecten are generally found either partially or completely
buried within the sediment, but when foraging, they roam over the
sediment surface where they are voracious predators of many infaunal
invertebrates, particularly molluscs and crustaceans. Arm are usually
ive in numbers, above or below the normal arm count are abnormal.
Abnormality is not an inheritable character but it is the outcome of
environmental perturbations on the metamorphosis of larvae and/or
abnormal regeneration of arms [7]. he present study produces the
preliminary report on the abnormal A. indicus caught as by-catch from
Mudasalodai, southeast cost of India.
Materials and Methods
Study area
Mudasalodai is a renowned landing centre, located near
Parangipettai Marine Biological station (11o29′N 79o46′E), south east
coast of India (Fig.1). About 200 mechanised boats (trawlers) and non-
*Corresponding author: K. Chamundeeswari, Faculty of Marine Sciences,
Centre of Advanced Study in Marine Biology, Annamalai University,
Parangipettai-608 502, Tamil Nadu, India. Tel: 04144-243223, Fax: 04144243553; E mail: cham_mercy@yahoo.co.in
Received June 06, 2013; Accepted June 25 2013; Published June 28, 2013
Citation: Chamundeeswari K, Saranya S, Shanker S, Varadharajan D, Rajagopal
S (2013) New Occurrence of Abnormal Sea Star, Astropecten indicus from
Mudasalodai, South East Coast of India. Cell Dev Biol 2: 116. doi:10.4172/21689296.1000116
Copyright: © 2013 Chamundeeswari K, et al. This is an open-access article
distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided
the original author and source are credited.
Volume 2 • Issue 2 • 1000116
Citation: Chamundeeswari K, Saranya S, Shanker S, Varadharajan D, Rajagopal S (2013) New Occurrence of Abnormal Sea Star, Astropecten
indicus from Mudasalodai, South East Coast of India. Cell Dev Biol 2: 116. doi:10.4172/2168-9296.1000116
Page 2 of 3
mechanised have been engaged for ishing activities. Trawlers were
operated for more than half day and approximately 400 families are
involving in ishing activities.
Discussion
A. indicus is a common sea star found in the sandy and muddy
intertidal region of tropical seas. he size and weight for the abnormal
A. indicus was ranged from 35 to 17mm and 3.0 to 5.0gm respectively.
Amongst 637 specimens were collected during the study period, all the
A. indicus have had 5 arms and only six of them with abnormal arm
counts.
his study was conducted from October 2009 to November 2010
and specimens were collected every month at regular intervals from the
trash ish of Mudasalodai landing centre by trawlers. Collected samples
were immediately brought back into the laboratory, where they were
washed with tap water to remove the adhered mud and other particles
and all were preserved in 5% formalin for further analysis. Specimen
identiications were done by following the standard identiication
monograph of [8]. In each collection the lengths of the arm R (from the
mouth center to the tip of arm in mm), r (from mouth center to the end
of interradius) and arm breadth br (at the base of arm) of the sea stars
were measured using calipers and weight of the specimen was taken by
electronic balance.
Sea star A. indicus usually follow the rule of pentamerism so the
inter-radial region has the L shape (90°) in normal animal. Each arm
of asteroids was coded according to the Carpenter system i.e, the
arm opposite the madreporite is arm A and one counts clockwise in
alphabetical order [9,10]. In the case of four armed specimen the interradial region was V shape instead L, the same was more reduced to
six and seven armed specimen. All abnormal specimens did not follow
the carpenter system but for the convenience, we recognised the arm
C and D where the madreporite exist in-between it and arm opposite
to madreporite as arm A. Here, not even single specimen had arm A
at its appropriate position and hence it was diicult to recognise its
carpenter system and where the excess arm arose. In the case of seven
armed specimen, we have mentioned second and third arms as B1 and
B2 because both ray was originated at the place of ray B and moreover,
the B2 was arise from the arm B1. Inter-radii of these arms contained 2
pairs of larger and distinct interangular superomarginal plate and these
were prominent along proximally and smaller towards distal.
Taxonomical description
Astropecten indicus Doderlein 1888
Synonyms: Astropecten indicus, Astropecten koehleri, Astropecten
pleiacanthus.
Characteristic features: Arms 5, R/r ranged between 11-44/313mm and br: 4-12mm. No anus instead involuted cone like structure at
disc centre. Paxillae regularly arranged along the dorso-lateral arm with
single row of dark stripes between it. Supero-marginal plates mostly 22,
well developed and without spines but bearing alternatively arranged
simple granules throughout. Infero-marginal plates with single series
of spines and plates were extended to the adambulacrals. Two actinal
plates were observed at the interradial region. Inter actinal region
with spines. Ambulacral groove bordered with two rows of spines and
adambulacral spines larger than the furrow spines. Tube feet pointed
arranged in a single row on either side of the ambulacral ridge (Fig. 2).
he large number of strictly pentamerous families of starish
support the interpretation that there is ‘‘rigid control’’ of pentamerism,
so such families can generate only ive arms, sometimes, the irregular
arm number also can be observed. Lawerence & Kumatsu showed that
the control of ray number is very precise in 5-rayed species and this
author experimentally observed the selective breeding in aberrant ray
number and produced only 5-rayed ofspring and not four rayed ones
[11]. It is evident that there has been recurrent independent evolution
of the multiradiate condition. Hotchkiss reported that the changes of
salinity also responsible for sea stars to have four rays [10]. his author
also acknowledged that the failure of the 4-rayed starish to develop
ith rays ater metamorphosis is consistent with the ‘‘synchronic
hypothesis’’ that the pathway to form the rudiments of the ive primary
rays operates for only a short time, switches of and does not recur. Any
primary rays that did not form during metamorphosis are not expected
to form later [13-15].
Results
Totally 637 specimen of A. indicus were collected
from the landing centre and among the 637 individuals,
only six of them had the abnormal arm numbers
(3 specimen from four armed, 2 from six armed and 1 from seven
armed) (Fig. 3).
Size of abnormal individuals
here is no proper literature for asteroids abnormality but few
literatures supports the abnormal ambulacral grooves and rays. Hyman
stated that if an arm is split vertically, a double outgrowth usually
results producing a distally forked arm [2]. Partial cuts through the disc
generally heal, but sometimes on or even two arms may grow out from
Weight: Weight of the sea star samples were ranged from 3.0 to
5.0gms (Table 1). he low weight 3.0gms recorded for the four armed
specimen during the month of July and high weight 5.0 was recorded
for six armed during the month of March.
Size (R) in mm
S.No
A
B
C
D
E
F
br (mm)
r
mm
G
A
B
C
Weight (gms)
D
E
F
G
For 4 arm specimens
1
24
23
22
22
6
7
7
8
7
3.3
2
19
19
17
19
6
7
7
7
6
3.0
3
23
22
22
23
7
8
8
9
8
3.4
For 6 arm specimens
4
30
30
31
31
31
31
11
9
8
9
9
9
9
4.5
5
26
33
35
32
30
28
12
10
11
11
12
11
11
5.0
A
B1
B2
C
D
E
F
6
5
4
6
6
6
5
For 7 arm specimen
6
A
B1
B2
C
D
E
F
22
17
17
20
20
22
21
8
4.7
Table 1: The arm size R, r and br for four rayed, six rayed and seven rayed samples.
Cell Dev Biol
ISSN: 2168-9296 CDB, an open access journal
Volume 2 • Issue 2 • 1000116
Citation: Chamundeeswari K, Saranya S, Shanker S, Varadharajan D, Rajagopal S (2013) New Occurrence of Abnormal Sea Star, Astropecten
indicus from Mudasalodai, South East Coast of India. Cell Dev Biol 2: 116. doi:10.4172/2168-9296.1000116
Page 3 of 3
the site of wound closure [12]. Hotchkiss stated that, double ambulacral
groove dose not arise from the ive hydrocoel ater metamorphosi [10].
From the reviews and literatures, we deduce that sea star A. indicus,
belonging to ive rayed family Astropectinidae and have only ive rays.
From this study we observed 6 abnormal A. indicus during the study
period and the seven armed specimen observed irst time in southeast
coast of India. Further study is needed to understand the reason behind
the abnormality in sea stars.
Acknowledgement
Authors are thankful to the former Dean & Director, Dr. T. Balasubramanian,
Faculty of Marine Sciences and authorities of Annamalai University for providing
with necessary facilities. The authors are also thankful to the Ministry of Earth
Sciences, New Delhi, India for the inancial assistance.
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Figure 1: Map showing the study area.
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Figure 3: (a,b&c) oral view of four armed, six armed and seven armed.
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Citation: Chamundeeswari K, Saranya S, Shanker S, Varadharajan D,
Rajagopal S (2013) New Occurrence of Abnormal Sea Star, Astropecten
indicus from Mudasalodai, South East Coast of India. Cell Dev Biol 2: 116.
doi:10.4172/2168-9296.1000116
Cell Dev Biol
ISSN: 2168-9296 CDB, an open access journal
Volume 2 • Issue 2 • 1000116