Gambierdiscus toxicus, dinoflagellate

Complex polyether paralytic neurotoxins that bind to sodium channels of nerve and muscle cells causing muscle contractions. They are heat stable (not destroyed by cooking or freezing) white solids obtained from dinoflagellates Gambierdiscus toxicus). 

Dinoflagellates Dinophysis spp., Prorocentrum lima Diatoms Pseudo-nitzschia spp. Dinoflagellates Protoperidinium spp. Epibenthic dinoflagellates Gambierdiscus toxicus Possibly Ostreopsis spp. Coolia spp. or Prorocentrum spp. 

Preliminary results on toxicity of 3 species of Caribbean dinoflagellates have been reported, namely those on Gambierdiscus toxicus (25), Prorocentrum concavum (as cf. lima) (26), and mexicanum (as rhathymum) (27). A more detailed description of the effects of ether-soluble and water-soluble toxins from the same strain of toxicus on guinea pig ilea are presented elsewhere in... 

Lipid-Extracted Toxins from a Dinoflagellate, Gambierdiscus toxicus... 

A dinoflagellate, Gambierdiscus toxicus has been reported to be the likely progenitor of ciguatoxin in the South Pacific (13-15). Recently, Tindall, (26), Miller, ]]) and Carlson, (18) reported on toxic extracts from G. toxicus and two species of Prorocentrum from the Caribbean. iHe physiological action of toxic extracts from G, toxicus were found to be similar to those induced by toxic extract from Scomberomorus cavalla (Kingfish) from the same region (19). 

Satake, M. Ishibashi,Y. Legrand, A.M. , Yasumoto, T. (1997) Isolation and structure of ciguatoxin-4A, a new ciguatoxin precursor, from cultures of dinoflagellate Gambierdiscus toxicus and parrotfish Scants gibbus. Biosci. Biotech. Biochem., 60, 2103-5. 

An impressively complex natural molecule is maitotoxin, a remarkable biologically active compound produced by the dinoflagellate Gambierdiscus toxicus. Presently, the total synthesis of this natural substance seems to be beyond the possibilities offered by modem synthesis. M. Sasaki, N. Matsumori, T. Maruyama, T. Nonomura, M. Murata, K. Tachibana, T. Yasumoto, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 1996, 35, 1672-1674. 

The brevetoxins (e.g. PbTx-2 (17)) and ciguatoxins are neurotoxic shell fish poisons (NSPs) which are produced by the dinoflagellates Gymnodinium breve and Gambierdiscus toxicus respectively. These... 

Adachi, R. and Fukuyo, Y. The thecal structure of a marine toxic dinoflagellate Gambierdiscus toxicus gen. et. spp. nov. collected in a ciguatera-endemic area, Bull. Jpn. Soc. Sci. Fish., 45, 67-71, 1979. 

Bagnis, R., Legrand, A.M., and Inoue, A. Eollow-up of a bloom of the toxic dinoflagellate Gambierdiscus toxicus in fringing reef in Tahiti, in Toxic Marine Phytoplankton, Graneli, E., Sundstrom, B., Edler, L., and Anderson, D.M., Eds., Elsevier, New York, 1990, pp. 98-103. 

Chinain, M., Germain, M., Sako, Y., Pauillac, S., and Legrand, A.M. Intraspecific variation in the dinoflagellate Gambierdiscus toxicus (Dinophyceae). I. Isozyme analysis. J. Phycol, 33, 36-43, 1997. 

Inoue, A. and Raj, U. An ecological survey of a toxic dinoflagellate, Gambierdiscus toxicus, and two other related unicellular algae in the Fiji Islands, Kagoshima Univ. Res. Center S. Pac. Occassional Papers, No. 5, 105-115, 1985. 

Nagai, H., Murata, M., Torigoe, K., Satake, M., and Yasumoto, T., Gambieric acids, new potent antifungal substances with unprecedented polyether structures from a marine dinoflagellate Gambierdiscus toxicus, J. Org. Chem., 57, 5448-5453, 1992a. 

Tosteson, T.R., Ballantine, D., Tosteson, C.G., Hensley, V. and Bardales, A.T. Associated bacterial flora, growth and toxieity of cultured beuthic dinoflagellates Ostreopsis lenticularis aud Gambierdiscus toxicus, Appl. Envir. Microbiol., 55, 137-141, 1989. 

Van Dolah, F.M., Leighfield, T. A., Sandel, H.D., and Hsu, C.K. Cell division in the dinoflagellate Gambierdiscus toxicus is phased to the diurnal cycle and accompanied by activation of the cell cycle regulatory protein, CDC2 kinase, J. PhycoL, 31, 395 00, 1995. 

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