The production of monoclonal antibodies for use as probes in the identification of northern Australian crown-of-thorns starfish and commercial prawn larvae

A major difficulty experienced in marine ecological studies is an inability to distinguish between species at early larval stages, especially among crustacean and soft-bodied invertabrate larvae. The larvae of penaeid prawns and Crown-of-Thorns starfish are no exception, and as a consequence, studies of larbal dispersion and recruitment into adult populations are difficult. Our approach to this problem has been to produce monoclonal antibodies against preserved specimens of particular species and then select, through screening a range of different larvae, those that show species-specifically. Several monoclonals have been developed for use in the identification of larvae collected from plankton samples. The method will provide for future studies of larval dispersal and can also be used on preserved samples collected prior to the availability of monoclonals.