COOLIA CANARIENSIS SP. NOV. (DINOPHYCEAE), A NEW NONTOXIC EPIPHYTIC BENTHIC DINOFLAGELLATE FROM THE CANARY ISLANDS¹

Abstract

A new photosynthetic dinoflagellate species, Coolia canariensis S. Fraga sp. nov., is described based on samples taken from tidal ponds on the rocky shore of the Canary Islands, northeast Atlantic Ocean. Its morphology was studied by LM and SEM. It is almost spherical and has a thick smooth theca with many scattered pores. Plate 1' is the biggest of the epithecal plates, and 7″ is twice as wide as it is long. Phylogeny inferred from the D1/D2 regions of the LSU nuclear rDNA of three strains of C. canariensis and several strains of other Coolia species, C. monotis, C. sp., showed that C. canariensis strains clustered in a well-supported clade distinct from the other species. No toxins were detected using mouse bioassay, liquid chromatography with Fluorescence detection (LC-FLD) or liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Its pigment composition is of the peridinin type of dinoflagellates. Together with this new species, many other strains of C. monotis from the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea have been analyzed for toxin presence, and no evidence of toxin production related to yessotoxins (YTXs) was found, as was previously suggested for C. monotis from Australia.

Morphological and genetic characterization of benthic dinoflagellates of the generaCoolia,OstreopsisandProrocentrumfrom the south-eastern Bay of Biscay

“…In agreement with the results of Penna et al (2005), only slight geographical differences can be observed among the different strains from the Mediterranean and the local isolates of C. monotis, which appear to belong to a single evolutionary lineage, whereas the New Zealand strain constitutes a genetically distinct entity described as Coolia malayensis (Leaw et al, 2010). Similar relationships were inferred by Fraga et al (2008) who found three different lineages within selected strains of the genus Coolia, one of them including strains of C. canariensis, a second with C. monotis from Indonesia and Belize and a third containing two sister groups, one corresponding to C. monotis from European localities and the other to C. monotis and C. malayensis from New Zealand, Malaysia and Florida. The local strains morphologically identified as Ostreopsis cf.…”

“…The morphology of C. canariensis corresponds well with the original description of Fraga et al (2008), except for the morphology of thecal pores of plate 1 0 , which are round in our strain but described as oval in the original description, and the cell dimensions, which are slightly larger in the local strains. The tabulation pattern of C. canariensis is very similar to that of C. areolata, but thecal ornamentation allows differentiation of the two species.…”

“…This study is the second report of C. canariensis, recently described by Fraga et al (2008) from the Canary Islands, although in our study area it has been found at only one locality. Ostreopsis cf.…”

“…Molecular analysis of the local C. monotis strains shows that the variability in the shape of some plates is not related to geographical genetic variability. Morphology of plate 7 00 was proposed by Fraga et al (2008) as one of the discriminating features among Coolia species, distinguishing a plate with a width/length ratio of $1 for C. monotis, 2 for C. areolata and C. canariensis and 4 for C. tropicalis. Later, C. malayensis was described with a width/length ratio for plate 7 00 ranging from 1.2 to 1.5 (Leaw et al, 2010).…”

“…Potentially toxic benthic algae have been the subject of increased research effort over the last few years; molecular methods and electron microscopy have allowed us to gain an insight into their taxonomy over broad geographical ranges (Nagahama & Fukuyo, 2005;Murray et al 2007;Faust et al, 2008;Fraga et al, 2008;Hoppenrath & Leander, 2008;Litaker et al, 2009;Chomerat et al, 2010). Several species are widely distributed and may be more abundant in warmer periods (Aligizaki & Nikolaidis, 2006;Mangialajo et al, 2008;Ingarao et al, 2009), indicating either a preference for warm waters or a positive correlation with factors associated with summer conditions such as the presence of higher macroalgal biomass or calm waters.…”