The effect of elevated temperature on the toxicity of the laboratory cultured dinoflagellate Ostreopsis lenticularis (Dinophyceae).

Ostreopsis lenticularis Fukuyo 1981, is the major benthic dinoflagellate vector implicated in ciguatera fish poisoning in finfish on the southwest coast of Puerto Rico. Clonal laboratory cultures of O. lenticularis (clone 301) exposed to elevated temperatures (30-31 degrees C) for 33 and 54 days showed significant increases in the quantity of extractable toxin they produced as compared to their toxicities versus cells grown at temperatures of 25-26 degrees C. O lenticularis samples collected directly from the field following exposure to elevated temperatures for comparable periods of time also showed significant increases in extractable toxin. The increased toxicity of both field sampled and laboratory grown O. lenticularis exposed to elevated temperatures may result from the effects of elevated temperatures on their metabolism and/or the bacterial symbionts found associated with these microalgae. The number of bacteria associated with cultured O. lenticularis exposed to elevated temperatures was significantly reduced. Increased toxin recovery from O. lenticularis exposed to elevated temperatures may have resulted from the direct effect of temperature on toxin production and/or the reduction of Ostreopsis associated bacterial flora that consume toxin in the process of their growth. This reduction in the quantity of associated bacterial flora in temperature treated cultures may result in increased toxin recovery from O. lenticularis due to a reduction in the consumption of toxin by these symbiont bacteria.