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JPR Advance Access published online on April 18, 2008
Journal of Plankton Research, doi:10.1093/plankt/fbn047
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Geographic distribution of Karlodinium veneficum in the US east coast as detected by ITS- Ferredoxin Real-Time PCR assay

Huan Zhang1, Wayne Litaker2, Mark W. Vandersea2, Patricia Tester2 and Senjie Lin1,3

1 Department of Marine Sciences, University of Connecticut, Groton, CT 06340, USA 2 National Ocean Service, National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration, Beaufort, NC 28516, USA 3 LMB, South China Sea institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Science, Guangzhou 510301, China

* Corresponding author: senjie.lin{at}uconn.edu

Received on February 7, 2008; revised on April 9, 2008; accepted on April 11, 2008


  Abstract

Karlodinium veneficum is an ichthyotoxic dinoflagellate suspected to be responsible for massive fish kills. Because it is morphologically similar to Pfiesteria and related dinoflagellates, accurate abundance data of K. veneficum in the natural environment is difficult to obtain using light microscopy. In this study, species-specific Real-Time PCR assays were developed using the ferredoxin gene (KvFERR) and rDNA locus (partial internal transcribed spacer regions and 5.8S rDNA, KvITS). These assays were used to investigate the geographic and temporal distribution of K. veneficum from various estuaries and coastal regions of the Pacific and West Atlantic Oceans. In general, both genes gave similar quantitative results, detecting down to 0.1 - 1 K. veneficum cells mL–1. The higher occurrence frequency and abundance of K. veneficum were observed in Neuse River, North Carolina, Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island and Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, USA. Most of the KvITS sequences from North Carolina to Maine were identical to that of K. veneficum strain CCMP1975 (initially isolated from Chesapeake Bay), with 1-2 nucleotide substitutions occurring in sequences from Texas and Narragansett Bay samples. This result suggests the same origin and recent separation of K. veneficum populations living in this wide geographic range. In this study, K. veneficum was more abundant at 5-15 °C and 4-20 PSU.

Key Words: rDNA ITS • ferredoxin • Karlodinium veneficum abundance • Real-Time PCR • geographic and seasonal distribution

Communicating Editor: Dr William Li


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