Pfiesteria

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Pfiesteria
Pfiesteria cf. piscicida

Pfiesteria cf. piscicida

Systematics
without rank: Alveolata
without rank: Dinoflagellates (Dinoflagellata)
without rank: Dinophyceae
Order : Phytodiniales
Family : Pfiesteriaceae
Genre : Pfiesteria
Scientific name
Pfiesteria
KA Steidinger & JM Burkholder

Pfiesteria is a genus of heterotrophic dinoflagellates that was first described in 1988 with the species Pfiesteria piscicida by JoAnn Burkholder and Ed Noga. The genus is named after Lois Ann Pfiester , a biologist who researched important principles of dinoflagellates.

Pfiesteria has been linked to harmful algal blooms and fish deaths. Organisms from the Pfiesteria group, for example, have been blamed for fish deaths off the coast of North Carolina and in the tributaries of Chesapeake Bay in the 1980s and 1990s. In response to the mass outbreaks, six US states along the east coast launched a surveillance program in order to be able to react quickly to new outbreaks and to better understand how they originated. New molecular genetic detection methods have proven Pfiesteria worldwide.

Diet

The first research results led to the hypothesis that Pfiesteria lived as a robbery robber who uses an extracellular poison that paralyzes the respiratory organs of fish, so that the fish die of asphyxiation . The unicellular Pfiesterien then eat the tissue emerging from the prey. In the case of Pfiesteria shumwayae , it was shown that the unicellular organisms eat the skin cells of the fish directly through myzoocytosis and thus damage the fish. This is known as micropredation .

Controversy

The biology of Pfiesteria and the importance of organisms from the Pfiesteria group in fish mortality and disease in humans is the subject of scientific controversy as much of the research results are ambiguous or contradictory.

  • Life cycle: Early research suggested a complex life cycle for Pfiesteria piscicida , which has become controversial due to conflicting observations. This applies in particular to the question of whether a poisonous amoeba stage exists.
  • Toxicity: The hypothesis that Pfiesteria kills fish with a poison released into the water has been questioned because in some experiments no poisons could be isolated and no toxicity could be observed. Ultimately, the toxicity observed seems to depend on the strain used and the analytical methods used. In 2007, a very unstable poison was identified in poisonous Pfiesteria piscicida .
  • Skin Damage: The skin damage observed associated with Pfiesteria has been attributed by some scientists to fungus-like Oomycetes . In the case of Pfiesteria shumwayae , it could be demonstrated that the lesions are the sum of many individual cells attacked by myzocytosis .
  • Influence on people: The effects of Pfiesteria on people have been questioned and even ascribed to Pfiesteria hysteria alone. In the meantime, critical studies have made such hysteria as a trigger for the symptoms unlikely. The effect of Pfiesteria on humans has not yet been finally clarified.

Systematics

The species P. piscicida and P. shumwayae are included in the genus Pfiesteria . The system has not been finally clarified, so P. shumwayae is also classified as Pseudopfiesteria shumwayae . For this reason, the different species are as Pfiesteria group ( Pfiesteria Complex Organism summarized).

Pfiesteria in literature

Web links

Commons : Pfiesteria  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rodney Barker (1998). And the Waters Turned to Blood. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-83845-1
  2. ^ RE Magnien (2001). State monitoring activities related to Pfiesteria-like organisms. Environ. Health Perspect., Vol. 109, pp. 711-714. doi : 10.2307 / 3454918
  3. ^ PA Rublee, DL Remington, EF Schaefer, MM Marshall (2005). Detection of the Dinozoans Pfiesteria piscicida and P. shumwayae: a review of detection methods and geographic distribution. J. Eukaryote. Microbiol., Vol. 52, No. 2, pp. 83-89. doi : 10.1111 / j.1550-7408.2005.05202007.x
  4. ↑ Eichhorn, Susan E. Raven, Peter H. Evert, Ray Franklin (2005). Biology of plants . WH Freeman and Company, New York, p. 205. ISBN 0-7167-1007-2
  5. ^ A b W. K. Vogelbein, VJ Lovko, JD Shields (2002): Pfiesteria shumwayae kills fish by micropredation not exotoxin secretion. Nature, Vol. 418, No. 6901, pp. 967-070. doi : 10.1038 / nature01008
  6. ^ TR Miller, R. Belas (2003). Pfiesteria piscicida, P. shumwayae, and other Pfiesteria-like dinoflagellates. Res. Microbiol., Vol. 154, No. 2, pp. 85-90. doi : 10.1016 / S0923-2508 (03) 00027-5
  7. ↑ MT Peglar, TA Nerad, OR Anderson, PM Gillevet (2004). Identification of amoebae implicated in the life cycle of Pfiesteria and Pfiesteria-like dinoflagellates. J. Eukaryote. Microbiol., Vol. 51, No. 5, pp. 542-552. doi : 10.1111 / j.1550-7408.2004.tb00290.x
  8. ↑ JM Burkholder, AS Gordon, PD Moeller et al. (2005). Demonstration of toxicity to fish and to mammalian cells by Pfiesteria species: comparison of assay methods and strains . Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Vol. 102, No. 9, pp. 3471-3476. doi : 10.1073 / pnas.0500168102
  9. ^ PD Moeller, KR Beauchesne, KM Huncik, WC Davis, SJ Christopher, P. Riggs-Gelasco, AK Gelasco (2007). Metal complexes and free radical toxins produced by Pfiesteria piscicida. Environ. Sci. Technol., Vol. 41, No. 4, pp. 1166-1172. doi : 10.1021 / es0617993
  10. ^ DR Greenberg, JK Tracy, LM Grattan (1998). A critical review of the Pfiesteria hysteria hypothesis. Md Med J, Vol. 47, No. 3, pp. 133-136.
  11. ↑ DN Collier, WA Burke (2002). Pfiesteria complex organisms and human illness. South. Med. J., Vol. 95, No. 7, pp. 720-726.
  12. ^ R. Wayne Litaker, Karen A. Steidinger, Patrice L. Mason, Jan H. Landsberg, Jeffrey D. Shields, Kimberly S. Reece, Leonard W. Haas, Wolfgang K. Vogelbein, Mark W. Vandersea, Steven R. Kibler and Patricia A. Tester (2005). The reclassification of Pfiesteria shumwayae (Dinophyceae): Pseudopfiesteria, gen. Nov. Journal of Phycology, Vol. 41, No. 3, pp. 643-651. doi : 10.1111 / j.1529-8817.2005.00075.x