title: Sulfated diesters of okadaic acid and DTX-1: Self-protective precursors of diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) toxins.
abstract: Many toxic secondary metabolites used for defense are also toxic to the producing organism. One important way to circumvent toxicity is to store the toxin as an inactive precursor. Several sulfated diesters of the diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) toxin okadaic acid have been reported from cultures of various dinoflagellate species belonging to the genus Prorocentrum. It has been proposed that these sulfated diesters are a means of toxin storage within the dinoflagellate cell, and that a putative enzyme mediated two-step hydrolysis of sulfated diesters such as DTX-4 and DTX-5 initially leads to the formation of diol esters and ultimately to the release of free okadaic acid. However, only one diol ester and no sulfated diesters of DTX-1, a closely related DSP toxin, have been isolated leading some to speculate that this toxin is not stored as a sulfated diester and is processed by some other means. DSP components in organic extracts of two large scale Prorocentrum lima laboratory cultures have been investigated. In addition to the usual suite of okadaic acid esters, as well as the free acids okadaic acid and DTX-1, a group of corresponding diol- and sulfated diesters of both okadaic acid and DTX-1 have now been isolated and structurally characterized, confirming that both okadaic acid and DTX-1 are initially formed in the dinoflagellate cell as the non-toxic sulfated diesters.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Marine Biosciences, National Research Council of Canada, 1411 Oxford Street, Halifax, NS B3H 3Z1, Canada.
authors.forename: Tingmo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Institute for Marine Biosciences, National Research Council of Canada, 1411 Oxford Street, Halifax, NS B3H 3Z1, Canada; Measurement Science and Standards, National Research Council of Canada, 1411 Oxford Street, Halifax, NS B3H 3Z1, Canada.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: LeBlanc
authors.affiliation: Institute for Marine Biosciences, National Research Council of Canada, 1411 Oxford Street, Halifax, NS B3H 3Z1, Canada.
authors.forename: Ian W
authors.initials: IW
authors.lastname: Burton
authors.affiliation: Institute for Marine Biosciences, National Research Council of Canada, 1411 Oxford Street, Halifax, NS B3H 3Z1, Canada.
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Walter
authors.affiliation: Measurement Science and Standards, National Research Council of Canada, 1411 Oxford Street, Halifax, NS B3H 3Z1, Canada.
authors.forename: Pearse
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: McCarron
authors.affiliation: Institute for Marine Biosciences, National Research Council of Canada, 1411 Oxford Street, Halifax, NS B3H 3Z1, Canada; Measurement Science and Standards, National Research Council of Canada, 1200 Montreal Road, Ottawa, ON K1A 0R6, Canada.
authors.forename: Jeremy E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Melanson
authors.affiliation: UNC Wilmington Center for Marine Science, Marvin K. Moss Lane, Wilmington, NC 28409, United States.
authors.forename: Wendy K
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Strangman
authors.affiliation: Institute for Marine Biosciences, National Research Council of Canada, 1411 Oxford Street, Halifax, NS B3H 3Z1, Canada; UNC Wilmington Center for Marine Science, Marvin K. Moss Lane, Wilmington, NC 28409, United States. Electronic address: wrightj@uncw.edu.
authors.forename: Jeffrey L C
authors.initials: JLC
authors.lastname: Wright
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004141:Dinoflagellida / Q000378:metabolism; D008387:Marine Toxins / Q000032:analysis; D019319:Okadaic Acid / Q000032:analysis* / Q000031:analogs & derivatives; D011714:Pyrans / Q000032:analysis*; D057096:Shellfish Poisoning
chemical_list: D008387:Marine Toxins; D011714:Pyrans; C114941:dinophysistoxin 5; D019319:Okadaic Acid; C051904:dinophysistoxin 1
keywords: DSP toxins; DTX-1; Diol esters; Okadaic acid; Sulfated diesters; Toxin storage