A tetrodotoxin-producing marine pathogen.

Abstract

Disease-related mortalities of sea urchin populations have occurred globally over the past 20 years, although the causative agents have rarely been identified1. We have discovered a potent new marine pathogen that caused a sudden die-off of the sea urchin Meoma ventricosa in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles, in January of 1997 (ref. 2), and which also has implications for human health. This turns out to be a neurotoxin-producing bacterium that is closely related to the deadly Pseudoalteromonas haloplanktis tetraodonis, which is responsible for numerous deaths each year in Japan resulting from the consumption of pufferfish3,4,5.