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Molecular evidence that plastids in the toxin‐producing dinoflagellate genus Dinophysis originate from the free‐living cryptophyte Teleaulax amphioxeia
Author(s) -
Janson Sven
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
environmental microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.954
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1462-2920
pISSN - 1462-2912
DOI - 10.1111/j.1462-2920.2004.00646.x
Subject(s) - dinophysis , dinoflagellate , plastid , biology , genus , botany , zoology , ecology , algal bloom , gene , genetics , phytoplankton , chloroplast , nutrient
Summary Some species of the dinoflagellate genus Dinophysis form red tides and are toxin producers with a great environmental impact. The dinoflagellates as a group display high plastid diversity. Several cases indicate that plastids have been replaced. In the case of the genus Dinophysis , the plastids show characteristics of a plastid originating from a cryptophyte. Recent molecular evidence showed that the plastid indeed originates from a cryptophyte, but the source could not be identified to species or genus level. The data presented here show that both a 799 bp region of the psbA gene and 1221 bp region of the 16S rRNA gene from Dinophysis spp. are identical to the same loci in Teleaulax amphioxeia SCCAP K434. This strongly indicates that the plastid was acquired recently in Dinophysis and may be a so‐called kleptoplastid, specifically originating from a species of Teleaulax .