title: Comparative ecophysiology and genomics of the toxic unicellular alga Fibrocapsa japonica.
abstract: Summary *Ten axenic cultures, referred to as Fibrocapsa japonica, were studied for their morphology, pigment composition, toxicity and phylogeny. *Morphologically, all 10 accessions were similar and displayed equivalent pigment contents. We identified chlorophylls a and c, beta-carotene and fucoxanthin as the dominant pigments, together with xanthophyll cycle carotenoids likely to be involved in photoprotection. *All 10 accessions caused brine shrimp, Artemia salina, mortality and displayed haemolytic and haemaglutination activities toward sheep erythrocytes. Our results indicate that haemaglutination activity is a key component of F. japonica toxicity. *Examination of a collection of F. japonica expressed sequence tags (ESTs) has led to the identification of candidate genes involved in F. japonica toxicity and/or growth control.
authors.affiliation: Biologie Moléculaire des Organismes Photosynthétiques, CNRS UMR8186, Département de Biologie, Ecole Normale Supérieure, F-75230 Paris Cedex 05, France.
authors.forename: Chantal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Guidi-Rontani
authors.forename: Uma
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Maheswari
authors.forename: Kamel
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jabbari
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bowler
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001156:Artemia; D002338:Carotenoids / Q000032:analysis; D002734:Chlorophyll / Q000032:analysis; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000187:drug effects; D056890:Eukaryota / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity / Q000502:physiology; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D023281:Genomics; D006384:Hemagglutination; D012756:Sheep; D024341:Xanthophylls / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D024341:Xanthophylls; C025164:fucoxanthin; D002734:Chlorophyll; D002338:Carotenoids