Divalent metal transporter-related protein restricts animals to marine habitats

Mieko Sassa et al. report a novel divalent metal transporter protein (DMTRP) in the crown-of-thorns starfish genome and determine that all organisms with a DMTRP gene are located in marine habitats. They also show in a functional yeast system that DMTRP can prevent uptake of certain metals, bringing insight into the evolution of metal regulation for marine organisms.