Objective
The project has the following objectives:
a) To determine the role of bacteria in dinoflagellate toxicity by defining the bacterial flora with molecular markers and by elucidating their influence on dinoflagellate toxicity with reference to laboratory cultures and the environment.
b) To define the physical association of bacteria with dinoflagellates throughout the latter's life cycle.
c) To determine the influence of bacteria on shellfish toxicity, and the prevalence of such bacteria in sea water and shellfish.
Molecular probes of high specificity to the microflora of selected dinoflagellate species will be produced, in order to supplement the use of traditional microbial culture techniques in monitoring the progress of various treatments in removing dinoflagellate-associated bacteria. Depending on the success of the latter either axenic dinoflagellate cultures or those which have a limited defined bacterial population will be used to determine the influence of bacteria on toxin production of dinoflagellates. The techniques developed will also be utilised to determine the influence of natural bacterial populations on dinoflagellate toxicity. The work will be supplemented with TEM, confocal microscopy and flow cytometry, to determine the physical association of bacteria at different stages of the dinoflagellates life cycle. The influence of bacteria on shellfish toxicity either through direct toxification or the ability to metabolise the PST toxins will also be evaluated. The frequency of occurrence of these bacteria in the environment and potential relevance to toxic events will also be determined.
Fields of science
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
CSC - Cost-sharing contractsCoordinator
AB11 9DB Aberdeen
United Kingdom