Abstract
Dinoflagellates of the genus Ostreopsis are known to cause (often fatal) food poisoning in tropical coastal areas following the accumulation of palytoxin (PLTX) and/or its analogues (PLTX group) in crabs, sea urchins or fish. Ostreopsis spp. occurrence is presently increasing in the northern to north western Mediterranean Sea (Italy, Spain, Greece and France), probably in response to climate change. In France, Ostreopsis. cf. ovata has been associated with toxic events during summer 2006, at Morgiret, off the coast of Marseille, and a specific monitoring has been designed and implemented since 2007. Results from 2008 and 2009 showed that there is a real danger of human poisoning, as these demonstrated bioaccumulation of the PLTX group (PLTX and ovatoxin-a) in both filter-feeding bivalve molluscs (mussels) and herbivorous echinoderms (sea urchins). The total content accumulated in urchins reached 450 µg PLTX eq/kg total flesh (summer 2008). In mussels, the maximum was 230 µg eq PLTX/kg (summer 2009) compared with a maximum of 360 µg found in sea urchins during the same period at the same site. This publication brings together scientific knowledge obtained about the summer development of Ostreopsis spp. in France during 2007, 2008 and 2009.
Highlights
Palytoxin (PLTX) (Figure 1) was isolated for the first time from corals of the genus Palythoa [1]
In order to choose the solvent that would extract the maximum amount of toxin, different solvents were tested on homogenates of digestive glands of mussels spiked with PLTX: (i) acetone, which allows extraction of a wide range of substances and is used in the extraction of lipophilic toxins [33]; (ii) methanol/water (50/50), acidified with 0.2% acetic acid, which is used for extraction the PLTX from Ostreopsis ovata and O. siamensis [18]; (iii) ethanol/water (80/20) used by
The solvents were tested using a homogenate of 50 g digestive glands (DG) from uncontaminated mussels
Summary
Palytoxin (PLTX) (Figure 1) was isolated for the first time from corals of the genus Palythoa [1]. It is a complex macromolecule whose chemical structure was elucidated in the 1980s [2,3,4]. Depending on the species from which it was isolated, the molecular weight and formula of PLTX can differ slightly, and some species may contain a mixture of different isomers [2]. In a recent review by Munday, lethal dose 50% (LD50) of PLTX to mice by intraperitoneal injection is between. 0.31 and 1.5 μg/kg, depending on observation time and source of PLTX [5].
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