CHARACTERIZATION OF 17 NEW MICROSATELLITE MARKERS FOR THE DINOFLAGELLATEALEXANDRIUM FUNDYENSE(DINOPHYCEAE), A HARMFUL ALGAL BLOOM SPECIES.
Alexandrium fundyenseis the toxic marine dinoflagellate responsible for "red tide" events in temperate and sub-arctic waters worldwide. In the Gulf of Maine (GOM) and Bay of Fundy in the Northwest Atlantic, blooms ofA. fundyenserecur annually, and are associated with major health and ecosystem impacts. In this region, microsatellite markers have been used to investigate genetic structure and gene flow; however, the loci currently available for this species were isolated from populations from Japan and the North Sea, and only a subset are suitable for the analysis ofA. fundyensepopulations in the Northwest Atlantic. To facilitate future studies ofA. fundyenseblooms, both in this region and globally, we isolated and characterized 17 polymorphic microsatellite loci from 31 isolates collected from the GOM and from the Nauset Marsh System, an estuary on Cape Cod, MA, USA. These loci yielded between two and 15 alleles per locus, with an average of 7.1. Gene diversities ranged from 0.297 to 0.952. We then analyzed these same 31 isolates using previously published markers for comparison. We determined the new markers are sufficiently variable and better suited for the investigation of genetic structure, bloom dynamics, and diversity in the Northwest Atlantic.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Biology Department, 266 Woods Hole Road, MS#32, Woods Hole, MA 02543.
Taylor
T
Sehein
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Biology Department, 266 Woods Hole Road, MS#32, Woods Hole, MA 02543.
Mindy L
ML
Richlen
National Research Institute of Fisheries Science, 2-12-4 Fukuura, Kanazawa, Yokohama Kanagawa, 236-8648, Japan.
Satoshi
S
Nagai
National Research Institute of Fisheries Science, 2-12-4 Fukuura, Kanazawa, Yokohama Kanagawa, 236-8648, Japan.
Motoshige
M
Yasuike
National Research Institute of Fisheries Science, 2-12-4 Fukuura, Kanazawa, Yokohama Kanagawa, 236-8648, Japan.
Yoji
Y
Nakamura
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Biology Department, 266 Woods Hole Road, MS#32, Woods Hole, MA 02543.
Donald M
DM
Anderson
Alexandrium fundyense; Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning; dinoflagellate; harmful algal bloom; microsatellite