Harmful algae blooms that produce the potent neurotoxin domoic acid, or DA, can have devastating impacts on marine animals. That’s even more true when DA intoxicates “keystone” species that play an outsized role in maintaining local biodiversity.
But there’s been little research on the toxicity and impacts of DA on sea stars — even though many species serve as the keystone for their intertidal ecosystems — and other backbone-less marine invertebrates (For sea stars, the stakes may be particularly high as wasting syndrome kills off BILLIONS and has left some populations more vulnerable than ever.)
A team from Bigelow Laboratory, led by Dennie Truong, a former undergraduate intern, and featuring Senior Research Scientist Maya Groner, Research Scientist Reyn Yoshioka, and former Research Associate Carmen Cartisano, is helping fill the gap. They just published research in Diseases of Aquatic Organisms showing how DA is accumulating in wild sea stars and highlighting its potential behavioral and physiological impacts.
As the blooms that produce DA become more common, this kind of work unraveling the impacts of this neurotoxin on marine food webs is more important than ever.
Read more: https://www.bigelow.org/news/articles/2025-08-28.html
Photo 1: Sea stars being held for an experiment in the advanced seawater suite at Bigelow Laboratory (Credit: Dennie Truong).
Photos 2 and 4: Sea stars curling into tight balls in response to experimental injections of kainic acid (Credit: Dennie Truong).
Photo 3: Dennie Truong, a recent Colby College graduate, participant in the Bigelow Laboratory Sea Change Semester program, and the study’s lead author (Credit: Maya Groner).
