Research Publications (Food Safety)

Atmospheric deposition can supply nutrients to induce varying responses of phytoplankton of different sizes in the upper ocean.

Pinnatoxins (PnTX) and Portimines (Prtn), two toxins produced by the benthic dinoflagellate Vulcanodinium rugosum, are known to be lethal to mice after intraperitoneal or oral administration. They are also known to accumulate in shellfish such as mussels and clams, but their effect on fish and the upper food chain remains unknown. In this work, juveniles of the fish Liza ramada (Mullet) were exposed to a strain of V. rugosum producing PnTX G and Prtn A.

Phytoplankton are photosynthetic microorganisms in aquatic environments that produce many bioactive substances. However, some of them are toxic to aquatic organisms via filter-feeding and are even poisonous to humans through the food chain. Human poisoning from these substances and their serious long-term consequences have resulted in several health threats, including cancer, skin disorders, and other diseases, which have been frequently documented.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Ahead of Print. Blooms of many dinoflagellates, including several harmful algal bloom (HAB) species, are seeded and revived through the germination of benthic resting cysts. Temperature is a key determinant of cysts’ germination rate, and temperature–germination rate relationships are therefore fundamental to understanding species’ germling cell production, cyst bed persistence, and resilience to climate warming.

Okadaic acid (OA), one of marine biotoxins produced by several species of dinoflagellates, can accumulate in marine animals. The consumption of OA-contaminated seafood can cause diarrhoeic shellfish poisoning. Many countries have established regulatory restriction to limit the level of OA in seafood. In the present study, we report a highly sensitive monoclonal antibody (mAb) against OA produced by a new immunogen.

During a cruise from October to November 2019, along the West Antarctic Peninsula, between 64.32 and 68.37°S, we assessed the diversity and composition of the active microbial eukaryotic community within three size fractions: micro- (> 20 μm), nano- (20–5 μm), and pico-size fractions (5–0.2 μm).

Okadaic acid (OA, C₄₄H₆₈O₁₃) is a neurotoxin and phosphatase inhibitor produced by several 

Harmful algal bloom (HAB) species Alexandrium catenella and Dinophysis acuminata are associated with paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) and diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) in humans, respectively. While PSP and DSP have been studied extensively, less is known about the effects of these HAB species or their associated toxins on shellfish. This study investigated A. catenella and D. acuminata toxicity in a larval oyster (Crassostrea virginica) bioassay.

Parasitic dinoflagellates in genus Hematodinium have caused substantial economic losses to multiple commercially valuable marine crustaceans around the world. Recent efforts to better understand the life cycle and biology of the parasite have improved our understanding of the disease ecology.

Diarrheic shellfish poison produced by toxic algae (e.g., Dynophysis sp.) adversely affects humans and marine ecosystems. Contamination occurs mainly from bivalve mollusks like mussels, but contamination from fishes (e.g., flatfish) has also recently been reported.

Current regulatory limit values for paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs) in shellfish products are not considering the bioaccessibility of PSTs in seafood matrix during the gastrointestinal digestion for human beings. In this study, the bioaccessibility of PSTs in the shellfish cooked by different ways was assessed using a static in vitro human digestion model.

A fluorescence immunochromatographic strip using quantum dot nanobeads (QDNBs)-monoclonal antibody (McAb) conjugates was developed to rapidly detecting okadaic acid (OA) in shellfish. Under optimal conditions, the linear working range was 0.62–20 ng·mL−1, and the full competitive limit of detection (LOD) was 20 ng·mL−1, corresponding to 160 μg·kg−1 per shellfish, meeting the regulatory limit of European Conformity (EC).

Dinoflagellates of the family Symbiodiniaceae are predominantly essential symbionts of corals and other marine organisms. Recent research reveals extensive genome sequence divergence among Symbiodiniaceae taxa and high phylogenetic diversity hidden behind subtly different cell morphologies. Using an alignment-free phylogenetic approach based on sub-sequences of fixed length k (i.e.

Invasive nostocalean cyanobacteria (INC) were first reported in tropical regions and are now globally spreading rapidly due to climate change, appearing in temperate regions. INC require continuous monitoring for water resource management because of their high toxin production potential. However, it is difficult to analyze INC under a microscope because of their morphological similarity to nostocalean cyanobacteria such as the genus Aphanizomenon.

Ostreopsis cf. ovata is a benthic dinoflagellate known to produce palytoxin (PLTX) and its analogues. Recent investigations suggested the production of unknown toxins by a Mediterranean strain. In the present work, two new families of toxins, potentially novel in their structures, were purified from this same Mediterranean strain of Ostreopsis cf. ovata.

Environmental Microbiology, Accepted Article. Protists are integral to marine food webs and biogeochemical cycles; however, there is a paucity of data describing specific ecological niches for some of the most abundant taxa in marker gene libraries. Syndiniales are one such group, often representing the majority of sequence reads recovered from picoplankton samples across the global ocean.

Proper thermal adaptation is key to understanding how species respond to long-term changes in temperature. However, this is seldom considered in protozooplankton and mixoplankton experiments. In this work, we studied how two heterotrophic dinoflagellates (Gyrodinium dominans and Oxyrrhis marina), one heterotrophic ciliate (Strombidium arenicola), and one mixotrophic dinoflagellate (Karlodinium armiger) responded to warming.

A paralytic shellfish toxin binding protein (PST-BP) was extracted and purified from the viscera of oyster (Crassostrea hongkongensis) that accumulates paralytic shellfish toxin (PST), and the amino acid sequence of the protein was detected via HPLC-MS-MS. The structure of the PST-BP was built by homology modeling, and the interaction between PST and PST-BP was studied using molecular docking. The results showed that the purity of PST-BP was more than 99.8% after the purification.

Domoic acid (DA) is a marine neurotoxin produced as a defence compound by diatom Pseudo-nitzschia. Although its toxicity is well known in marine mammals and fish, data on DA cyto/genotoxicity in human non-target cells is still limited. Hence, we aimed to study the effect of DA (0.001 to 10 µg/mL) on cell viability and proliferation kinetics of human hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cells as well as DNA damage induction after 4, 24 and 72 h of exposure.

Cyanotoxins are a diverse group of bioactive compounds produced by cyanobacteria that have adverse effects on human and animal health. While the phenomenon of cyanotoxin production in aquatic environments is well studied, research on cyanotoxins in terrestrial environments, where cyanobacteria abundantly occur in biocrusts, is still in its infancy.

The cockle Cerastoderma edule is a commercially important species in many European Countries. It can accumulate okadaic acid (OA) and other toxins in its group, which makes it unsuitable for human consumption, producing harvesting bans to avoid intoxications. The duration of those bans depends in part on the depuration kinetics of the toxin in this species.

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, 22:6n-3) plays significant roles in enhancing human health and preventing human diseases. The heterotrophic marine dinoflagellate Crypthecodinium cohnii is a good candidate to produce high-quality DHA. To overcome the inhibition caused by the fermentation supernatant in the late fermentation stage of DHA-producing C. cohnii, fermentation supernatant-based adaptive laboratory evolution (FS-ALE) was conducted.

Development of in vitro new approach methodologies has been driven by the need for developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) hazard data on thousands of chemicals. The network formation assay characterizes DNT hazard based on changes in network formation but provides no mechanistic information. This study investigated nervous system signaling pathways and upstream physiological regulators underlying chemically induced neural network dysfunction.

Paralytic shellfish toxins (PSTs) are a large group of biotoxins that cause paralytic shellfish poisoning. Their appearance in natural waters and their ingestion by aquatic species have a huge socio-economic impact, whereby their monitoring is of the upmost relevance to minimize the consequences. For earlier detection and faster response/action by stakeholders, validation of adjusted analytical methods, particularly for lower concentration levels, is important.

Modern microbial taxonomy generally relies on the use of single marker genes or sets of concatenated genes to generate a framework for the delineation and classification of organisms at different taxonomic levels. However, given that DNA is the 'blueprint of life', and hence the ultimate arbiter of taxonomy, classification systems should attempt to use as much of the blueprint as possible to capture a comprehensive phylogenetic signal.