Ciguatera related benthic dinoflagellates assemblage observed in Macaronesia

• Main Authors: Fraga, Santiago, Riobó, Pilar, Diogène, Jorge, Paz, Beatriz, Franco, José Mariano
• Format: Still Image
• Language: English
• Published: 2005
• Subjects: Centro Oceanográfico de Vigo; Medio Marino; North East Atlantic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10508/9983; http://hdl.handle.net/10261/321547

Ciguatera is a common syndrome in tropical areas like Caribbean Sea or Polynesia and is caused by fish affected by toxic dinoflagellates through the food chain. With few exceptions, the assemblage of ciguatera-associated dinoflagellates has a tropical and subtropical distribution. This distribution is strongly affected by the eastern boundary currents in subtropical regions in a way that no records of this assemblage have been found in their associated coastal upwelling systems. Nevertheless, it has been observed in some of the North East Atlantic islands, collectively known as Macaronesia, as they are not affected by the cooling of surface waters caused by coastal upwelling at the same latitude. Clonal cultures of species belonging to genera Gambierdiscus, Ostreopsis, Coolia, Prorocentrum and Amphidinium have been obtained through single cell isolations from benthic macroalgae sampled in the Canary Islands and Ostreopsis cultures were also obtained from Madeira Island. Gambierdiscus is toxic under the fibroblast assay, palytoxin like toxins were detected in all the strains of Ostreopsis from both archipelagos and okadaic acid toxin was detected in Prorocentrum arenarium. The potential toxicity of other isolates is under study.