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Melanie Prentice on Muck Rack

Melanie Prentice

As seen in: Nature, The Independent (UK), Yahoo Canada, Yahoo News New Zealand, Aol, The Conversation, BioRxiv, AOL UK, ASM Journals, Microbiology Research and

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Articles

Reply to: A case definition with microscopy would help establish Vibrio as a cause of sea star wasting disease

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By Melanie Prentice, Grace Crandall, Amy Chan, Katherine Davis, Jan F Finke, Jason Hodin, Andrew W McCracken, Colleen Kellogg, Kevin Zhong, C. Drew Harvell, Curtis A. Suttle, Alyssa-Lois M. Gehman, Rute B. G. Clemente-Carvalho
| Nature Verified
replying to T. M. Work et al. Nature Ecology & Evolution https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-026-03091-5 (2026) Sea star wasting disease (SSWD) afflicts asteroid species, with observations of arm twisting, dermal lesions, organ herniation, low turgor pressure and/or arm autotomy used to identify diseased individuals. In 2013 a prolific epidemic of SSWD swept the Pacific Coast of North America, affecting more than 20 asteroid species from Mexico to Alaska, USA.
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Draft genome sequence of Vibrio pectenicida strain FHCF-3, a causative agent of sea star wasting disease in the sunflower sea star ( Pycnopodia helianthoides ), reveals the genetic potential to produce aerolysin-like toxins

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By Kevin Zhong, Amy Chan, Melanie Prentice
| ASM Journals
Published In Microbiology Resource Announcements Volume 14 • Number 9 • 11 September 2025 : e00287-25 : Elinne Becket, California State University San Marcos, San Marcos, California, USA History Received: 1 April 2025 Accepted: 24 May 2025 Published online: 14 August 2025 Keywords sea star wasting disease genomes whole-genome sequencing (WGS) Vibrio pectenicida aerolysin sunflower sea star (Pycnopodia helianthoides) Data Availability The genome sequence of V.
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Solving the decade-long mystery of what was killing sea stars in the Pacific

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By Melanie Prentice, Alyssa-Lois M. Gehman, Drew Harvell, Grace Crandall
| shorturl.at
In 2013, a mysterious epidemic swept across the Pacific Coast of North America, rapidly turning billions of sea stars from Mexico to Alaska into goo. Its name, sea star wasting disease (SSWD), describes what you might have seen if you wandered the shores of the Pacific Northwest at that time: contorted sea star bodies and fragmented arms littered the sea floor, as the tissues of sea stars melted away within a matter of days.
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