Domoic Acid Improves the Competitive Ability of Pseudo-nitzschia delicatissima against the Diatom Skeletonema marinoi

Marine Drugs

Emily K. Prince¹  Friederike Irmer² 

[1] Department of Mathematics, Sciences, and Technology, Paine College, 1235 15th Street, Augusta, GA 30901, USA;Institute for Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, Friedrich Schiller University, Lessingstrasse 8, Jena 07743, Germany; E-Mails:

关键词: iron;    Pseudo-nitzschia;    harmful algal bloom;    competition;    domoic acid;    allelopathy;   

DOI  :  10.3390/md11072398

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Because domoic acid, a neurotoxic secondary metabolite produced by marine diatoms in the genus Pseudo-nitzschia, is hypothesized to be part of a high affinity iron uptake system, we investigated whether domoic acid could improve the competitive ability of Pseudo-nitzschia delicatissima, and whether the availability of iron changed the outcome of competition experiments. We found that domoic acid had a slight negative effect on growth of the diatom Skeletonema marinoi when it was grown in monocultures. However, when S. marinoi was cultured with P. delicatissima the presence of domoic acid resulted in a reduction of S. marinoi cells by up to 38% and an increase in P. delicatissima cell numbers by up to 17% under iron replete conditions. Similar effects were not observed in low iron treatments. Domoic acid was not taken up by P. delicatissima cells. Overall, our results indicate that domoic acid can improve the competitive ability of Pseudo-nitzschia spp. and that iron is likely to be involved. This study provides an unusual example of indirect inhibition of competitor growth mediated by a secondary metabolite.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.