UNLABELLED Reef-building corals form essential, mutualistic endosymbiotic associations with photosynthetic Symbiodinium dinoflagellates, providing their animal host partner with photosynthetically derived nutrients that allow the coral to thrive in oligotrophic waters. However, little is known about the dynamics of these nutritional interactions at the (sub)cellular level. Here, we visualize wi...

Yessotoxin (YTX) is a globally distributed marine toxin produced by some isolates of the dinoflagellate species Protoceratium reticulatum, Lingulodinium polyedrum, and Gonyaulax spinifera within the order Gonyaulacales. The process of isolating cells and testing each isolate individually for YTX production during toxic blooms are labor intensive, and this impedes our ability to respond quickly ...

This study documents effects of the toxic dinoflagellate Gymnodinium catenatum, a producer of paralytic shellfish poison, on juvenile farmed (5.9+/-0.39 cm) giant lions-paw scallop Nodipecten subnodosus. Scallops were fed bloom concentrations of toxic dinoflagellate G. catenatum for 7 h. The effect of the toxic dinoflagellate in different tissues was determined by analysis of antioxidant enzyme...

Spliced leader (SL) trans-splicing has recently been shown to be a common mRNA processing mechanism in dinoflagellates, in which a short (22-nt) sequence, DCCGUAGCCAUUUUGGCUCAAG (D = U, A, or G), is transplanted from the 5'-end of a small non-coding RNA (SL RNA) to the 5' end of mRNA molecules. The widespread existence of the mechanism in dinoflagellates has been demonstrated by detection of th...

In this paper, we focus on dinoflagellate ecology, toxin production, fossil record, and a molecular phylogenetic analysis of hosts and plastids. Of ecological interest are the swimming and feeding behavior, bioluminescence, and symbioses of dinoflagellates with corals. The many varieties of dinoflagellate toxins, their biological effects, and current knowledge of their origin are discussed. Kno...

Saprophytic bacteria in cultures of the marine dinoflagellate Alexandrium catenella were removed to assess their effect on growth and paralytic shellfish poisoning toxin production of this dinoflagellate. The actual axenic status was demonstrated by the lack of observable bacteria both immediately after treatment and following extended incubation in the absence of antibiotics. Bacteria were mea...

The alpha-proteobacteria phylogenetically related to the Roseobacter clade are predominantly responsible for the degradation of organosulfur compounds, including the algal osmolyte dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP). Silicibacter sp. strain TM1040, isolated from a DMSP-producing Pfiesteria piscicida dinoflagellate culture, degrades DMSP, producing 3-methylmercaptopropionate. TM1040 possesses thr...

Citation: Wasmund N, Kownacka J, Göbel J, Jaanus A, Johansen M, Jurgensone I, Lehtinen S and Powilleit M (2017) The Diatom/Dinoflagellate Index as an Indicator of Ecosystem Changes in the Baltic Sea 1. Principle and Handling Instruction. Front. Mar. Sci. 4:22. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00022 The Diatom/Dinoflagellate Index as an Indicator of Ecosystem Changes in the Baltic Sea 1. Principle and Ha...

Dinoflagellates are key species in marine environments, but they remain poorly understood in part because of their large, complex genomes, unique molecular biology, and unresolved in-group relationships. We created a taxonomically representative dataset of dinoflagellate transcriptomes and used this to infer a strongly supported phylogeny to map major morphological and molecular transitions in ...

Dinoflagellates are an intriguing group of eukaryotes, showing many unusual morphological and genetic features. Some groups of dinoflagellates are morphologically highly uniform, despite indications of genetic diversity. The species Amphidinium carterae is abundant and cosmopolitan in marine environments, grows easily in culture, and has therefore been used as a 'model' dinoflagellate in resear...