First report of goniodomin A production by the dinoflagellate Alexandrium pseudogonyaulax developing in southern Mediterranean (Bizerte Lagoon, Tunisia)

• Alexandrium pseudogonyaulax cysts have different morphotypes.
• Phylogenetic tree showed that this species is cosmopolitan.
• GDA was extracted from A. pseudogonyaulax vegetative cells for the first time.
• A. pseudogonyaulax cell extract showed an important cytotoxicity.

The dinoflagellate Alexandrium pseudogonyaulax is widely distributed around the world including the Mediterranean waters. The objectives of this study were to determine the morphology and phylogenic affiliation of A. pseudogonyaulax strain isolated from Bizerte Lagoon (Mediterranean waters, Tunisia) and investigate its toxicity. Molecular analyses confirmed the morphological identification of the isolated strain (APBZ12) as A. pseudogonyaulax. Moreover, it showed that it is 100% identical with strains of this species found in New Zealand, Japan, China and North Sea (Norway and Denmark) suggesting that this species is cosmopolitan. Until now, no toxin studies have been conducted on fully characterized (morphologically and molecularly) A. pseudogonyaulax. Cellular toxin production was determined using high pressure liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS). Results showed for the first time that A. pseudogonyaulax contains goniodomin A (GDA), a highly toxic macrolide polyether previously shown to be produced by two other dinoflagellate species Alexandrium monilatum (Hsia et al., 2006) and Alexandrium hiranoi (erroneously identified as A. pseudogonyaulax in Murakami et al., 1988) in American and Japanese waters, respectively. This biologically active toxin has been associated over decades with fish mortality. Our study showed that the cell extracts of APBZ12 showed an important bioactivity using GH4C1 rat pituitary cytotoxicity bioassay.