Morphological and Molecular Characterization of Three New Azadinium Species (Amphidomataceae, Dinophyceae) from the Irminger Sea

Some species of the planktonic dinoflagellate genus Azadinium produce azaspiracids (AZAs), a group of lipophilic phycotoxins causing human poisoning after mussel consumption. We describe three new species from the North Atlantic, all of which shared the same Kofoidean plate pattern characteristic for Azadinium: Po, cp, X, 4′, 3a, 6″, 6C, 5S, 6′″, 2″″. Azadinium trinitatum sp. nov. was mainly characterized by the presence of an antapical spine and by the position of the ventral pore at the left distal end of the pore plate in a cavity of plate 1′. Azadinium cuneatum sp. nov. had a conspicuously formed first apical plate, which was asymmetrically elongated and tapered on its left lateral side with a ventral pore located at the tip of this elongated 1′ plate. Azadinium concinnum sp. nov. was of particular small size (< 10 μm) and characterized by an anteriorly elongated anterior sulcal plate and by large and symmetric precingular plates. The ventral pore was located inside the apical pore plate on the cells’ right lateral side. Molecular phylogenetics as inferred from concatenated SSU rRNA, ITS, and LSU rRNA sequence data supported the distinctiveness of the three new species. None of the new species produced any known AZAs in measurable amounts.