The dinoflagellate Alexandrium catenella producing only carbamate toxins may account for the seafood poisonings in Qinhuangdao, China

Ren-Cheng Yu; Qing-Chun Zhang; Yang Liu; Zhen-Fan Chen; Hui-Xia Geng; Li Dai; Zhuo-Ru Lin; Wen-Jiao Tang; Fan-Zhou Kong; Tian Yan; Ming-Jiang Zhou

doi:10.1016/j.hal.2021.101980

The dinoflagellate Alexandrium catenella producing only carbamate toxins may account for the seafood poisonings in Qinhuangdao, China

Harmful Algae. 2021 Mar:103:101980. doi: 10.1016/j.hal.2021.101980. Epub 2021 Feb 20.

Authors

Ren-Cheng Yu¹, Qing-Chun Zhang², Yang Liu³, Zhen-Fan Chen⁴, Hui-Xia Geng⁵, Li Dai⁶, Zhuo-Ru Lin⁶, Wen-Jiao Tang⁷, Fan-Zhou Kong², Tian Yan², Ming-Jiang Zhou⁸

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China; Key Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (Qingdao), Qingdao 266071, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China. Electronic address: rcyu@qdio.ac.cn.
² CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China; Key Laboratory for Marine Ecology and Environmental Science, Pilot National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology (Qingdao), Qingdao 266071, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Applied Marine Biology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510301, China.
⁴ College of Life Sciences and Oceanography, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
⁵ Changjiang River Estuary Ecosystem Research Station, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China.
⁶ CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
⁷ College of Marine Life Science, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China.
⁸ CAS Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Sciences, Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qingdao 266071, China.

PMID: 33980430
DOI: 10.1016/j.hal.2021.101980

Abstract

An outbreak of paralytic shellfish poisoning, recorded in April 2016 in Qinhuangdao China, was suspected to be caused by a toxic species in genus Alexandrium. Shortly after the poisoning outbreak, shellfish and net-concentrated phytoplankton samples were collected from the Bohai Sea, and analysed using high performance liquid chromatography coupled with fluorescence detection. Paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs) were detected in both phytoplankton and shellfish samples, with similar toxin profiles dominated by carbamate toxins. High throughput sequencing data for phytoplankton samples collected previously in the coastal waters of Qinhuangdao were then analysed, and 8 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were assigned to Alexandrium affine, A. andersonii/A. ostenfeldii, A. catenella, A. fraterculus, A. hiranoi/A. pseudogonyaulax, A. margalefii, A. pacificum and A. pohangense, among which A. catenella, A. pacificum and A. ostenfeldii could be potential producers of PSTs. During a cruise in 2019, three isolates of Alexandrium were established by cyst germination, and identified as A. catenella based on the sequences of the 28S ribosomal RNA gene (28S rDNA) D1-D2 region. Interestingly, all the three strains had the same toxin profile consisting of gonyautoxins 1, 3, 4 (GTX1, 3, 4) and neosaxitoxin (NEO). The toxin profile is similar to those of phytoplankton samples collected previously in the coastal waters of Qinhuangdao, but remarkably different from the general toxin profile of A. catenella dominated by N-sulfocarbamoyl toxins C1-2 in the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea. The results suggest that A. catenella is most likely to be the causative species of the poisoning outbreak in Qinhuangdao. As far as we know, this is the first report of A. catenella in the Bohai Sea producing PSTs dominated by high potent gonyautoxins GTX1-4. Occurrence of the highly toxic A. catenella will increase the risk of paralytic shellfish poisoning, which necessitates in-depth mechanism studies and increasing monitoring efforts.

Keywords: Alexandrium catenella; Bohai Sea; Cyst; HPLC; High throughput sequencing; Paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs).

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Carbamates
China
Dinoflagellida*
Seafood
Shellfish Poisoning*

Substances

Carbamates