Description
Ciguatera fish poisoning (CFP) has been reported for many years in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, and has had the world’s highest reported incidence of this illness for the last 20 years. Following intensive sampling to understand the distribution of the causative organisms of CFP, an undescribed Gambierdiscus species was isolated from the Rarotongan lagoon. Gambierdiscus cheloniae sp. nov. has the common Gambierdiscus Kofoidian plate formula (except for a variability in the number of precingular plates in aberrant cells): Po, 30 , 600 (700), 6C?, 6 or 7S, 50 00 , 1p and 200 00 . The 20 plate is hatchet shaped and the dorsal end of 1p is pointed and the relatively narrow 1p plate. Morphologically G. cheloniae is similar to the genetically closely related species G. pacificus, G. toxicus and G. belizeanus, although smaller (depth and length) than G. toxicus. The apical pore plate varies from those of G. belizeanus and G. pacificus, which are shorter and narrower, and from G. toxicus, which is larger. G. cheloniae also differs from G. pacificus in the shape of the 20 plate. The description of this new species is supported by phylogenetic analyses using three different gene regions. G. cheloniae produced the putative maitotoxin-3 analogue, MTX-3, but neither maitotoxin or monitored ciguatoxin. Extracts of G. cheloniae were shown to be highly toxic to mice by intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection, although they were less toxic by gavage. It is possible that this species produces toxins other than putative MTX-3.
Data Records
The data in this sampling event resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 6 records.
2 extension data tables also exist. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated below.
This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.
Versions
The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.
How to cite
Researchers should cite this work as follows:
Smith K F, Rhodes L, Verma A, Curley B G, Harwood D T, Kohli G S, Solomona D, Rongo T, Munday R, Murray S A (2024). A Gambierdiscus species (Dinophyceae) from Rarotonga, Cook Islands: Gambierdiscus cheloniae. Version 1.0. Southwestern Pacific Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) Node. Samplingevent dataset. https://nzobisipt.niwa.co.nz/resource?r=gambierdiscus_rarotonga&v=1.0
Rights
Researchers should respect the following rights statement:
The publisher and rights holder of this work is Southwestern Pacific Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) Node. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY 4.0) License.
GBIF Registration
This resource has not been registered with GBIF
Keywords
Samplingevent
Contacts
- Metadata Provider ●
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- Point Of Contact
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Geographic Coverage
Rarotonga, Cook Islands
| Bounding Coordinates | South West [-21.273, -159.826], North East [-21.211, -159.729] |
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Temporal Coverage
| Start Date / End Date | 2014-11-01 / 2014-11-30 |
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Sampling Methods
Sampling was carried out in November 2014 at six selected sample sites: Muri Lagoon, Titikaveka Beach, adjacent to the Queen’s Representative residence (near Turoa Beach), the Papua Passage, adjacent to the Highland Paradise Cultural Centre and Black Rock Beach
| Study Extent | Rarotonga, Cook Islands |
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Method step description:
- Dinoflagellate cells were shaken from macro-algae into sealable plastic containers containing local sea water (approx. 500 mL each). Sub-samples were transferred to 50 mL Falcon tubes (BD Biosciences, USA) and germanium dioxide (approx. 1% final conc.) was added on arrival at the temporary laboratory (Muri Beachcomber Motel, Rarotonga, Cook Islands) in order to suppress diatom growth. Cells were isolated under a light microscope (Olympus CK2) using modified pickers (fine glass tubing with one end drawn to a fine tip under flame and the other end attached to fine silicone tubing so as suction can be applied) and transferred into 24-well tissue culture plates (Becton Dickinson, USA) containing sea water and f2 medium (Guillard, 1975; final conc. 5%) to support dinoflagellate growth. Uni-algal isolates were transported back to the laboratory at the Cawthron Institute, Nelson, New Zealand for culturing and determination of their DNA sequencing data, morphological characteristics and toxin production. On return to the Cawthron Institute, cultures were grown at 25 C +- 2 C with 40–70 mmol m-2 s-1 photon irradiance (12:12 h L:D). Selected clonal cultures were deposited in the Cawthron Institute Culture Collection of Micro-algae (CICCM).
Collection Data
| Collection Name | Cawthron Institute, Nelson, New Zealand |
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| Collection Identifier | CAWD |
Bibliographic Citations
- Smith, K.F., Rhodes, L., Verma, A., Curley, B.G., Harwood, D.T., Kohli, G.S., Solomona, D., Rongo, T., Munday, R. and Murray, S.A., 2016. A new Gambierdiscus species (Dinophyceae) from Rarotonga, Cook Islands: Gambierdiscus cheloniae sp. nov. Harmful Algae, 60, pp.45-56.
Additional Metadata
marine, harvested by iOBIS
| Alternative Identifiers | https://nzobisipt.niwa.co.nz/resource?r=gambierdiscus_rarotonga |
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