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Dinoflagellate heterotrophy

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Abstract

The state art of dinoflagellate heterotrophy are reviewed in this paper. Heterotrophic dinoflagellates are widespreadly in dinoflagellates, only few species are living on autotrophic mechanism sensu stricto (autotrophic amphitrophy) alone. Nearly half of the dinoflagellate species are apochlorotic, and the rest dinoflagellate species have organic nutritional needs even if they have chloroplasts, called mixotrophy. These mixotrophy dinoflagellates do not necessarily uptake organic compounds as the major carbon sources, but vitamins, biotin and so on for growth and reproduction. The mixotrophy dinoflagellates can live not only on actively uptaking dissovled organic matters (osmotrophy) and extracellular digestion of food with subsequent uptake of the dissolved products (saprotrophy), but also parasitic (parasitism) and symbiotic (symbiosis) way to support their growth. Most apochlorotic dinoflagellates live on organic matters as their only carbon source, called heterotrophic amphitrophy sensu stricto, or organotrophy, which are the majority of heterotrophic dinoflagellates. There are three types of organotrophy, parasitic organotrophy, symbiosis organotrophy and phagotrophy. This article discusses the three kinds of phagotrophy in detail: phagotrophic feeding, peduncle feeding and pallium feeding. Phagotrophic feeding is commonly found in either thecate or athecate apochlorotic dinoflagellates, phagotrophic dinoflagellates mainly feed through the junction of the flagellar grooves in sulcus or the bottom of the hypotheca for the prey, but through the apical hole and suture are also found. Peduncle feeding dinoflagellates feed by means of an extinsible, tube-like "peduncle/ phagopod", by which attached to unicellular algae, ciliates and even small metazoans, pierce through their prey cytoplasmic membrane and suck their cytoplasma to get the nutrition. Peduncle feeding is the majority of phagotrophy in dinoflagellates. Pallium feeding only is found in Protoperidinium and Diplopsalis, feeding on other plankton with a pallium (sac) extruded from a microtubular basket outside the cell, wrapping and digesting the prey in pallium. The sizes of dinoflagellates prey have a wide range, from a few microns to hundreds of microns. Some dinoflagellates feed selectively. They locate and feed on special prey by chemical sensing, and consequently increase the biovolume and ecdysis. Other types of heterotrophic feeding by dinoflagellates, such as filter/ interception feeding, pseudopodial feeding, stompopd feeding, tentacle/ piston feeding etc., is briefly introduced in this article. The methodology of dinoflagellate heterotroph study, an attempt to understand the evolutionary meaning of these heterotrophic manifestations, their implications on the marine ecosystem, and future research topics are also briefly discussed.

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2 Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Am Handelshafen, 12, 27570 Bremerhaven, Germany
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The marine thecate dinoflagellate Fragilidium subglobosum (von Stosch) Loeblich (= Helgolandinium subglobosum von Stosch), previously believed to be an obligate phototroph, is shown to be mixotrophic, apparently feeding exclusively on Ceratium spp. Food uptake involves neither a pallium nor a peduncle but depends on direct engulfment. The amphiesma of F. subglobosum possesses bodies which might be involved in the initial digestion of the prey's theca and perhaps also in the capture of the prey. Ceratium cells are ingested within 5-15 min, depending on their size. The prey theca is gradually dissolved during engulfment, but the theca of F. subglobosum remains intact until engulfment is completed, although the feeding cell is able to increase its volume approximately threefold during the process. This is possible because the individual thecal plates detach from one another making the theca more flexible.
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Peridiniopsis berolinensis (Lemmermann) Bourrelly (Peridiniales, Dinophyceae) is attracted to injured or dying protists (including other dinoflagellates and cells of its own kind) and small metazoans. Punctured nematodes were used for experimental induction of feeding. Peridiniopsis berolinensis uses a filament to establish connection with potential food items and ingests their fluid contents through a feeding tube protruded from the mid-ventral region of the cell. Food items small enough to pass through the tube can be ingested whole. The feeding tube is supported by c. 20 rows of microtubules, and is lined by a single membrane, continuous with the plasma membrane and with the membrane of the forming food vacuole. The tube and the longitudinal flagellum pass through a sulcal cavity lined by amphiesmal plates that shows an unusual fibrous connection between the edge of a plate and the middle of another. Suction seems to be involved in food uptake, and it is proposed that the driving force is mechanical generation of lower pressure inside the food vacuole. This idea is supported by morphological changes in the episoma of pre-feeding cells. The membrane of the feeding tube was not seen to establish an intimate association with the plasma membrane of prey organisms and, therefore, use of the term myzocytosis in connection with the feeding mechanism of P. berolinensis is discouraged.
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Feeding of a naked photosynthetic dinoflagellate, Gyrodinium instriatum, on loricated ciliates was investigated. Gyrodinium instriatum preyed on Favella azorica and Eutintinnus tubulosus by engulfment through the posterior end of the sulcus. In the case of E.tubulosus, G.instriatum preyed on this small ciliate keeping the original gymnodinioid cell shape. On the other hand, G.instriatum preyed on Favella taraikaensis by absorbing the cell contents of this large ciliate, which resulted in a balloon-like inflation of its body size. It seemed that G.instriatum can change its feeding style according to the size of prey. Thus, the present study shows, by using direct observations on the feeding of G.instriatum on loricated ciliates, a reversal of energy flow processes in the food chain in which photosynthetic organisms eat primary consumers. The growth of G.instriatum after feeding on E.taraikaensis and E.tubulosus is also described briefly.
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Summary Motile dinospores ofPaulsenella attach to a host diatom frustule, form a feeding tube, drive it between epi- and hypocingulum, pierce the host plasmalemma and suck up host cytoplasm gradually. This mode of endocytosis (“myzocytosis”) implies that the host plasmalemma is not ingested and that the host cytoplasm within the food vacuole is bounded only by the vacuolar membrane. The feeding tube is formed by the emergence of a preformed “microtubular basket” consisting of plates of microtubules. At its entrance into the cell body the feeding tube channel is surrounded by an electron-dense ring. Similar “sphincters” enclose the two exits through which the two flagella emerge. These sphincters are composed of microfibrils which reveal a cross striation when the fixative does not contain calcium ions. The flagellar bases as well as the internal part of the feeding tube are surrounded by a common cavity which is in open connection also with the ampullae of the pusule. The light and electron microscopical observations do not support the assumption that food uptake is driven by a flow of the membrane of the feeding tube channel caused by an interaction with the microtubular basket (as postulated for food uptake inSuctoria) but rather by an hydrostatic gradient which might be caused by rhythmical ion pumping and be based on the existence of the common cavity and the sphincters. Myzocytosis is inhibited by cytochalasin B.—The fine structure of dinospores and trophonts, especially with respect to the cell covering, the amphiesma, and the en- and excystment, is described.
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Algae were either heat-killed and labelled with 5-(4,6-dichlorotriazin-2-yl amino fluorescein) (DTAF) or stained with hydroethidine (HYD). Both DTAF and HYD-stained algae were readily visible within the digestive vacuoles of most microzooplankton collected in estuarine and coastal waters of Massachusetts, but DTAF was ineffective at staining several chromophytic algae and the heat-kill process reduced cell volume by ≥50% in several of the algae which were effectively stained. HYD effectively stained all algae tested except chlorophytes. -from Author
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Individuals of the common coastal marine dinoflageilate genus Protoperidinium have been found to perform extracellular digestion of chain-forming diatoms by means of a pseudopodial ‘feeding veil’. This mechanism of feeding explains the absence of food particles in these non-photosynthetic, thecate organisms, and seems to be an adaptation for opportunistic feeding
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Several papers give brief accounts of unarmored Dinophyceae found along the eastern coast of the United States. Calkins (1902) described from Woods Hole three European species, with one as a new variety. Herdman (1924a) listed five European, sand-living species from Woods Hole. Lackey (1936) listed thirteen species, all European, in his account of Woods Hole protozoa. Martin (1929) described thirteen species, four of which were new, from Barnegat Bay. It would be expected that further study would show many more extensions of range from the east to the west side of the Atlantic. One wonders, though, whether new species would be few, as suggested by these figures, or on the contrary would be many, since studies hitherto have not been very detailed. Further, the Barnegat Bay list suggests that the shallow, estuarine type of habitat has as many species as coastal waters, since Martin's number is matched only by that of Lackey. The following study covers twenty-six species, of which twelve are completely
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Although Oblea can feed and grow on a wide range of phytoplankton species, the highest observed growth rates (c1 doubling d-1) were supported by the large diatom Ditylum brightwellii. Functional and numerical responses curves, obtained with the green alga Dunaliella tertiolecta and D. brightwellii as foods, were typical in form of those obtained previously for other planktonic protozoans. Ditylum, however, consistently supported higher rates of growth and grazing than Dunaliella. Gross growth efficiencies for Oblea were relatively high. A chemosensory response to phytotoplankton exudates was observed during motion analysis of swimming behaviour. -from Authors
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Phytoplankton populations near Igloolik, northern Foxe Basin, began to increase in late April, and reached their climax in mid-August. The rapid late-August decline of the phytoplankton populations coincided with diminishing light. Diatoms were the main biomass producers in Igloolik and the principal food for the marine fauna. The succession of spring Pennatae and summer Centriceae apparently was caused by light and ice conditions. Taxonomic composition of the Igloolik phytoplankton was influenced by the fast ice and by the shallowness and hydrographic uniformity of the adjacent areas. Descriptions are given of two new species of dinoflagellates, Gyrodinium arcticum and Gymnodinium intercalaris, and the new coccolithine flagellate Pontospkaera ditrematolitha.
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A small, freshwater dinoflagellate with an incomplete cingulum, identified as Esoptrodinium gemma Javornický (=Bernardinium bernardinense sensu auctt. non sensu Chodat), was maintained in mixed culture and examined using light and serial section TEM. Vegetative flagellate cells, large cells with two longitudinal flagella (planozygotes), and cysts were examined. The cells displayed a red eyespot near the base of the longitudinal flagellum, made of two or three layers of pigment globules not bounded by a membrane. Yellow-green, band-shaped chloroplasts, bounded by three membranes and containing lamella with three thylakoids, were present in both flagellate cells and cysts. Most cells had food vacuoles, containing phagotrophically ingested chlamydomonads or chlorelloid green algae; ingestion occurred through the ventral area, involving a thin pseudopod apparently driven by the peduncle. The pusule was tubular, with numerous diverticula in its distal portion, and opened into the longitudinal flagellar canal. Three roots were associated with each pair of flagellar bases, both in vegetative cells and in a planozygote. The longitudinal microtubular root bifurcated around the longitudinal basal body. The planozygote contained a single peduncle and associated structures, and a single transverse flagellar canal with the two converging transverse flagella. Using two ciliates as outgroup species, phylogenetic analyses based on maximum parsimony, neighbor-joining and posterior probability (Bayesian analysis) supported a clade comprising Esoptrodinium, Tovellia, and Jadwigia.