title: Comparison of paralytic shellfish poisoning toxin between carnivorous crabs (Telmessus acutidens and Charybdis japonica) and their prey mussel (Mytilus galloprovincialis) in an inshore food chain.
abstract: Paralytic shellfish poisoning toxin in two shore crab species, Telmessus acutidens and Charybdis japonica, were compared with the toxin in the prey mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis and causative dinoflagellates Alexandrium tamarense, all having been collected at Onahama, Fukushima Prefecture, in the northern part of Japan. When the toxicities were detected in mussels by mouse bioassays, 73.7% of the sampled T. acutidens were toxic in the hepatopancreas. T. acutidens has been found to become toxic for three years, therefore, it can be concluded that the crab commonly and repeatedly accumulate the toxins via the food chain at Onahama. C. japonica was also expected to be a possible vector species, because small quantities of the toxins were detected in eight specimens of the crab by HPLC analysis. By the comparison of the toxin profiles in the dinoflagellates, mussels and the crab T. acutidens, reductive conversions of GTX1 and GTX4 were observed when the toxins passed through the three species in the food chain. But increases of STX and neoSTX by further reductive process were not observed in the crab. The absence of the STX group toxins in the crab suggests that the crab eliminates the toxin before such reductive process occur.
authors.affiliation: National Research Institute of Fisheries Science, Fisheries Research Agency, 2-12-4 Fukuura, Kanazawa, Yokohama, Kanagawa 236-8648, Japan. oikawah@fra.affrc.go.jp
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Oikawa
authors.forename: Tsuneo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fujita
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.forename: Shugo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Watabe
authors.forename: Masataka
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Satomi
authors.forename: Yutaka
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yano
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D049872:Bivalvia / Q000378:metabolism*; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D004141:Dinoflagellida; D005517:Foodborne Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D008387:Marine Toxins / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D051379:Mice; D012758:Shellfish
chemical_list: D008387:Marine Toxins