Parasitism of harmful dinoflagellates in Korean coastal waters

•We conducted a survey of dinoflagellate parasitism at several sites along the Korean coast for more than a decade.•We report distribution and seasonality of parasites infecting dinoflagellates in Korean coastal waters.•We reviewed published accounts on the biology and genetic diversity of parasites from Korea.•We set those data in context relative to studies from other regions.•Some issues for use as a biological control agent and the potential use in biotechnology and/or bio-industry are discussed.

Two parasites of dinoflagellates, the perkinsid Parvilucifera infectans and the parasitic dinoflagellate Amoebophrya ceratii, are known to infect numerous dinoflagellate hosts, including some toxic and harmful algal bloom species. These parasites have received particular attention, due to growing interest in developing “natural” biological approaches for controlling harmful red tides. Nonetheless, few published accounts of dinoflagellate parasitism are available for coastal waters of Asia, although that region is strongly influenced by dinoflagellate red tides. In this paper, our goals were (1) to review available information (i.e. distribution and seasonality) on Amoebophrya that infect dinoflagellates of Korean coastal waters, providing novel observation where possible, (2) set data (i.e. biology and genetic diversity) for Korean Amoebophrya within a global context, and (3) discuss the implications of available findings on the potential use of Amoebophrya as a biological control agent of harmful dinoflagellates.