Dipstick to detect starfish

QUEENSLAND scientists have developed a dipstick test that can detect crown-ofthorns starfish on coral reefs, using the same technology as home pregnancy tests.

The dipstick, designed to be used in the field, measures specific DNA the sea creatures release into the ocean.

The rapid test, developed by Australian Institute of Marine Science researchers, can detect very low numbers of the coraleating pest, which can be difficult to spot with current survey methods.

More development of the test is needed but the big hope is it could one day be used by citizen scientists and tourism operators to feed information back to authorities about crown-ofthorns starfish infestations on the Great Barrier Reef.

AIMS biochemist Jason Doyle said that like a home pregnancy test, the CoTS dipstick reveals a positive response via the appearance of a stripe.

“The home pregnancy test is for particular hormones that get produced if a woman is pregnant,” Mr Doyle said.

“The diagnostic technology of the dipstick is essentially the same. There’s a target compound that, in the case of a pregnancy dipstick, is a hormone. In the case of our crown of thorns starfish dipstick, it’s a piece of DNA.”

Researchers successfully used the dipstick test on filtered seawater samples from Lizard Island and Elizabeth Reef, finding CoTS DNA where other survey methods had failed to pick up any signs of the animals.

The research, published in the journal, Environmental DNA, was funded by the National Geographic Society and the Ian Potter Foundation.