The diversity and origins of toxins in ciguatera fish poisoning

The source of the diversity of phytotoxins found in the marine food web is not well understood. It is not clear what roles these secondary metabolites might have in the phytoplankton that produce them. The phytotoxins do not appear to be deterrents of predation, although the production of antibiotics by marine macroalgae might be considered in this light (86). It is equally doubtful that the production and/or presence of these toxins confers a selective advantage on the phytoplankton producers, when in fact the diversity of naturally occurring phytoplankton species may well be maintained by lytic viral infections (22,64). On the other hand, these multiple, diverse toxins may be the products of the different adaptations and interactions that take place between microalgal vectors and the highly variable spectrum of their microbial symbionts. We do not know what selective signals these toxic products may be providing in the maintenance of the symbiont-host consortia in which they are produced, however, their diversity most likely reflects the diversity of symbiotic interactions that exist in these consortia. Woven into the very fabric of the traditional marine food web is an invisible empire of marine micro-organisms, that by its very existence may determine the intense diversity of toxins found in marine biota. Marine bacteria are very likely the most abundant organisms in the sea and to a large degree maintain a food web of their own, often referred to as the microbial loop (64). This microbial web sustains the biogeochemical cycles in the sea. Much of the food produced by phytoplankton and cyanobacteria is consumed by bacteria in the microbial loop and may never enter the food web of larger invertebrates and fishes. Traditionally, the marine food web has been viewed, so to speak, from the top, however, it is now clear that there is an enormous marine microbial food web from which the food web of larger invertebrates and fishes emanates (Figure 13). In many respects the phytotoxins are biomarkers of the interactions between these two food webs. In their very diversity these toxins reflect an amalgam of interacting collaborating forms of life, a complex of phytoplankton hosts and their microbial symbionts producing multiple toxins and their derivatives that ultimately result in the complex medical symptoms they produce in human consumers of poisoned seafoot...

Lysis of red blood cells by extracts from benthic dinoflagellates

Samples of the cultured benthic dinoflagellates Gambierdiscus toxicus and Ostreopsis lenticularis, both isolated from a shalow back reef habitat in soutwestern Puerto Rico, were estracted in methanol, dried and resuspended in distilled water. After centrifugation, aliquots of the supernatant, or dilutions thereof, were added to suspensions of washed human and mouse red blood cells and incuated at different temperatures for different time periods. Further spectrophotometrical examinations of the samples showed a hemolytic activity aginst mouse and human red blood cells. The hemolytic activity of G. toxicus extract was 3 to 4 times greater than that of O. lenticularis and was less temperature-dependent. Such findings suggest that these two dinoflagellates produce chemically different hemolysins