The toxin goniodomin, produced by Alexandrium spp., is identical to goniodomin A
Publication date: Available online 16 January 2020Source: Harmful AlgaeAuthor(s): Constance M. Harris, Kimberly S. Reece, Donald F. Stec, Gail P. Scott, William M. Jones, Patrice L.M. Hobbs, Thomas M. HarrisAbstractIn 1968 Burkholder and associates (J. Antibiot. (Tokyo) 1968, 21, 659–664) isolated the antifungal toxin goniodomin from an unidentified Puerto Rican dinoflagellate and partially characterized its structure. Subsequently, a metabolite of Alexandrium hiranoi was isolated by Murakami et al. from a bloom in Japan and its structure was established (Tetrahedron Lett. 1988, 29, 1149–1152). The Japanese substance h...
Source: Harmful Algae - January 17, 2020 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Climate change and harmful benthic microalgae
Publication date: Available online 15 January 2020Source: Harmful AlgaeAuthor(s): Patricia A. Tester, R. Wayne Litaker, Elisa BerdaletAbstractSea surface temperatures in the world’s oceans are projected to warm by 0.4–1.4 °C by mid twenty-first century causing many tropical and sub-tropical harmful dinoflagellate genera like Gambierdiscus, Fukuyoa and Ostreopsis (benthic harmful algal bloom species, BHABs) to exhibit higher growth rates over much of their current geographic range, resulting in higher population densities. The primary exception to this trend will be in the tropics where temperatures exceed species-sp...
Source: Harmful Algae - January 15, 2020 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Guanitoxin, re-naming a cyanobacterial organophosphate toxin
Publication date: February 2020Source: Harmful Algae, Volume 92Author(s): Marli Fátima Fiore, Stella Thomaz de Lima, Wayne W. Carmichael, Shaun M.K. McKinnie, Jonathan R. Chekan, Bradley S. MooreAbstractAnatoxin-a(S) is the most potent natural neurotoxin produced by fresh water cyanobacteria. It is also the least understood and monitored. Although this potent cholinesterase inhibitor was first reported in the 1970s and connected with animal poisonings, the lack of chemical standards and identified biosynthetic genes together with limited diagnostics and acute reactivity of this naturally-occurring organophosphate have lim...
Source: Harmful Algae - January 15, 2020 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Structural variation of potentially toxic epiphytic dinoflagellates on Thalassia testudinum from two coastal systems of Colombian Caribbean
Publication date: February 2020Source: Harmful Algae, Volume 92Author(s): Natalia Arbeláez M., José Ernesto Mancera-Pineda, Beatriz RegueraAbstractSome benthic dinoflagellates produce toxins that can affect other organisms including humans, and their proliferation seems to be related to the environmental variability. For this reason, the present study aims to compare the structural variation of potentially toxic dinoflagellates associated with the seagrass Thalassia testudinum from two nearby systems, with different environmental characteristics in Colombian Caribbean, corresponding to a brackish water coastal lagoon and...
Source: Harmful Algae - January 9, 2020 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Identification and expression analysis of meiosis-related genes in the harmful alga Heterosigma akashiwo (Raphidophyceae)
This study documents a part of the typical SR gene repertoire and its potential role in regulating cell division in H. akashiwo, offering candidates for population growth markers for bloom monitoring although its linkage to meiosis and SR remain to be studied further in the future. (Source: Harmful Algae)
Source: Harmful Algae - January 3, 2020 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Cyanobacterial blooms in the Baltic Sea: Correlations with environmental factors
Publication date: February 2020Source: Harmful Algae, Volume 92Author(s): Mati Kahru, Ragnar Elmgren, Jérôme Kaiser, Norbert Wasmund, Oleg SavchukAbstractMassive cyanobacteria blooms occur almost every summer in the Baltic Sea but the capability to quantitatively predict their extent and intensity is poorly developed. Here we analyse statistical relationships between multi-decadal satellite-derived time series of the frequency of cyanobacteria surface accumulations (FCA) in the central Baltic Sea Proper and a suite of environmental variables. Over the decadal scale (∼5-20 years) FCA was highly correlated (R2 ∼ 0.69) ...
Source: Harmful Algae - January 3, 2020 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Climate Change and Harmful Algal Blooms: Insights and perspective
Publication date: Available online 25 December 2019Source: Harmful AlgaeAuthor(s): Christopher J. GoblerAbstractClimate change is transforming aquatic ecosystems. Coastal waters have experienced progressive warming, acidification, and deoxygenation that will intensify this century. At the same time, there is a scientific consensus that the public health, recreation, tourism, fishery, aquaculture, and ecosystem impacts from harmful algal blooms (HABs) have all increased over the past several decades. The extent to which climate change is intensifying these HABs is not fully clear, but there has been a wealth of research on ...
Source: Harmful Algae - December 26, 2019 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Are laboratory growth rate experiments relevant to explaining bloom-forming cyanobacteria distributions at global scale?
Publication date: February 2020Source: Harmful Algae, Volume 92Author(s): Man Xiao, David P. Hamilton, Katherine R. O’Brien, Matthew P. Adams, Anusuya Willis, Michele A. BurfordAbstractPredicting algal population dynamics using models informed by experimental data has been used as a strategy to inform the management and control of harmful cyanobacterial blooms. We selected toxic bloom-forming species Microcystis spp. and Raphidiopsis raciborskii (basionym Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii) for further examination as they dominate in 78 % and 17 %, respectively, of freshwater cyanobacterial blooms (cyanoHABs) reported global...
Source: Harmful Algae - December 26, 2019 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Algal toxins in Alaskan seabirds: Evaluating the role of saxitoxin and domoic acid in a large-scale die-off of Common Murres
Publication date: February 2020Source: Harmful Algae, Volume 92Author(s): Caroline Van Hemert, Sarah K. Schoen, R. Wayne Litaker, Matthew M. Smith, Mayumi L. Arimitsu, John F. Piatt, William C. Holland, D. Ransom Hardison, John M. PearceAbstractElevated seawater temperatures are linked to the development of harmful algal blooms (HABs), which pose a growing threat to marine birds and other wildlife. During late 2015 and early 2016, a massive die-off of Common Murres (Uria aalge; hereafter, murres) was observed in the Gulf of Alaska coincident with a strong marine heat wave. Previous studies have documented illness and death...
Source: Harmful Algae - December 24, 2019 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Cyst-forming dinoflagellates in a warming climate
Publication date: Available online 20 December 2019Source: Harmful AlgaeAuthor(s): Michael L. Brosnahan, Alexis D. Fischer, Cary B. Lopez, Stephanie K. Moore, Donald M. AndersonAbstractMany phytoplankton species, including many harmful algal bloom (HAB) species, survive long periods between blooms through formation of benthic resting stages. Because they are crucial to the persistence of these species and the initiation of new blooms, the physiology of benthic stages must be considered to accurately predict responses to climate warming and associated environmental changes. The benthic stages of dinoflagellates, called rest...
Source: Harmful Algae - December 21, 2019 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Modeling harmful algal blooms in a changing climate
Publication date: Available online 19 December 2019Source: Harmful AlgaeAuthor(s): David K. Ralston, Stephanie K. MooreAbstractThis review assesses harmful algal bloom (HAB) modeling in the context of climate change, examining modeling methodologies that are currently being used, approaches for representing climate processes, and time scales of HAB model projections. Statistical models are most commonly used for near-term HAB forecasting and resource management, but statistical models are not well suited for longer-term projections as forcing conditions diverge from past observations. Process-based models are more complex,...
Source: Harmful Algae - December 20, 2019 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Quantification of the paralytic shellfish poisoning dinoflagellate Alexandrium species using a digital PCR
Publication date: February 2020Source: Harmful Algae, Volume 92Author(s): Hyun-Gwan Lee, Hye Mi Kim, Juhee Min, Chungoo Park, Hae Jin Jeong, Kitack Lee, Kwang Young KimAbstractA ubiquitous dinoflagellate, Alexandrium, produces paralytic shellfish toxin (PST), and its outbreaks have negative impacts on aquaculture, fisheries, human health, and the marine ecosystem. To minimize such damages, a routine monitoring program of toxic species must be implemented with a suitable analytical technique for their identification and quantification. However, the taxonomic identification and cell quantification of Alexandrium species base...
Source: Harmful Algae - December 20, 2019 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Toxin content of Ostreopsis cf. ovata depends on bloom phases, depth and macroalgal substrate in the NW Mediterranean Sea
Publication date: Available online 14 December 2019Source: Harmful AlgaeAuthor(s): Gémin Marin-Pierre, Réveillon Damien, Hervé Fabienne, Pavaux Anne-Sophie, Tharaud Maxime, Séchet Véronique, Bertrand Samuel, Lemée Rodolphe, Amzil ZouherAbstractOver the last fifteen years, blooms of the genus Ostreopsis have been reported more frequently and at higher abundances in the Mediterranean area. Ostreopsis cf. ovata is known to produce ovatoxins (OVTXs), structural analogues of palytoxin, which is one of the most potent non-polymeric toxins. However, the production of OVTXs is poorly characterized in situ. The present study ...
Source: Harmful Algae - December 14, 2019 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
Multiannual variations in Microcystis bloom episodes – Temperature drives shift in species composition
Publication date: Available online 9 December 2019Source: Harmful AlgaeAuthor(s): Shira Ninio, Achsa Lupu, Yehudit Viner-Mozzini, Tamar Zohary, Assaf SukenikAbstractCyanobacteria are notorious for producing water blooms and for toxin formation. Toxic cyanobacterial blooms present an ever-increasing serious threat to both the quality of drinking water and recreational uses and severely disrupt aquatic ecosystems, worldwide. In many cases, such blooms are dominated by toxic Microcystis sp. that produce a family of structurally similar hepatotoxins, known as microcystins (MCs). Here we present a retrospective analysis of Micr...
Source: Harmful Algae - December 11, 2019 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
An extraordinary Karenia mikimotoi "beer tide" in Kachemak Bay Alaska
Publication date: Available online 3 December 2019Source: Harmful AlgaeAuthor(s): Mark Vandersea, Patricia Tester, Kris Holderied, Dominic Hondolero, Steve Kibler, Kim Powell, Steve Baird, Angela Doroff, Darcy Dugan, Andrew Meredith, Michelle Tomlinson, R. Wayne LitakerAbstractIn autumn of 2013 an immense dinoflagellate bloom developed in Kachemak Bay, AK, USA. Much of the Bay was discolored a dark amber color and raised public concerns as small scale fish kills were reported in a few locations. Light microscopy revealed a monospecific bloom of gymnodinoid dinoflagellates that were previously unknown from the Bay. Gene seq...
Source: Harmful Algae - December 4, 2019 Category: Environmental Health Source Type: research
