Sea cucumbers belonging to echinoderm are traditionally used as tonic food in China and other Asian countries. They produce abundant biologically active triterpene glycosides. More than 300 triterpene glycosides have been isolated and characterized from various species of sea cucumbers, which are classified as holostane and nonholostane depending on the presence or absence of a specific structu...

Sea cucumbers, belonging to the class Holothuroidea, are marine invertebrates, habitually found in the benthic areas and deep seas across the world. They have high commercial value coupled with increasing global production and trade. Sea cucumbers, informally named as bêche-de-mer, or gamat, have long been used for food and folk medicine in the communities of Asia and Middle East. Nutritionally...

BACKGROUND Bioturbators affect multiple biogeochemical interactions and have been suggested as suitable candidates to mitigate organic matter loading in marine sediments. However, predicting the effects of bioturbators at an ecosystem level can be difficult due to their complex positive and negative interactions with the microbial community. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We quantified the ef...

Sea cucumbers are found in various sea environments like sea floors from the deep sea to intertidal areas (Foster and Hodgson, 1995; Uthicje et al., 2009). Sea cucumbers belong to the phylum Echinodermata and they mainly feed on detritus containing organic matter, microalgae, and bacteria (Massin, 1982; Moriarty, 1982; Yingst, 1976). Gut microorganisms are important for digestion of diets, but ...

Over five hundred and forty of seacucumbers eollected on the southern coasts of Tasmania have in the course of the present study. Seven families, 12 and 14 species are represented in the One is regarded are as new, adhaerens, TaVUtll. and Paraca.udina. Three other species have not been recorded previously from Tasmania but are known from the coast of Victoria. They are Cllcurnella Jnutans incon...

BACKGROUND The dried form of sea cucumbers has been a seafood and medicinal cure for Asians over many centuries. In this study the chemical composition and nutritional quality of eight common sea cucumbers (Stichopus herrmanni, Thelenota ananas, Thelenota anax, Holothuria fuscogilva, Holothuria fuscopunctata, Actinopyga mauritiana, Actinopyga caerulea and Bohadschia argus) were determined. RE...

We present here the complete genome sequences of two newly isolated Pseudoalteromonas tetraodonis and Pseudoalteromonas lipolytica strains, isolated from the gut of the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus, to provide a useful means for facilitating the study of antibacterial, bacteriolytic, agarolytic, and algicidal activities of marine Pseudoalteromonas species.

The lack of a reliable and innocuous mark-recapture method has limited studies that would provide essential information for the management of commercial sea cucumbers. Tagging sea cucumbers is notoriously difficult because of their plastic nature and autolysis capacities. The markers that have so far been tested, mainly on or through the body wall, were either lost rapidly or had major drawback...

Small-scale fisheries are important to livelihoods and subsistence seafood consumption of millions of fishers. Sea cucumbers are fished worldwide for export to Asia, yet few studies have assessed factors affecting socioeconomics and wellbeing among fishers. We interviewed 476 men and women sea cucumber fishers at multiple villages within multiple locations in Fiji, Kiribati, Tonga and New Caled...

In this study, we sequenced the genomes of two Shewanella spp., newly isolated from the gut of the sea cucumber Apostichopus japonicus (Selenka, 1867). The whole-genome sequences reported here will expand the repertoire of genomic information for the members of the genus Shewanella and will provide important insights into their roles within microbial communities.