LAUSR

The dinoflagellate genus Margalefidinium has been split from Cochlodinium as a new genus recently and Margalefidinium fulvescens is one of the five Margalefidinium species. Margalefidinium fulvescens is toxic and has been reported from the coastal waters of USA, Canada, Mexico, China, Japan, Indonesia, Korea, Pakistan and Spain. Here we provide the morphological and phylogenetic characterization for an isolate of it from the Jiaozhou Bay, Qingdao, China. Our results showed that the vegetative cells were subspherical to ellipsoidal, 34-60 m in length, and 19-41 m in width. Both single cell forms and colonies in chains of 2, 4, or 8 cells were observed in cultures, but chain forms with 2 or 4 cells were observed more often in the field samples. The cingulum was rather deep, encircling the cell approximately twice, but the sulcus was rather narrow, surrounding the cell about one turn. The nucleus was spherical and located at the central epicone. The chloroplasts were granular, brownish, and scattered peripherally. An orange pigmented body also appeared in the epicone. The apical groove appeared vase-like as previously described. Under epi-fluorescence microscopy, a pumpkin-like structure was clearly observed, in which cells were embedded. Cells were observed to exit from the structure, which led us to a hypothesis that the structure may provide cells a shelter to avoid predation or to respond to other stresses. The phylogenetic analyses based on partial LSU rDNA sequences indicated that M. fulvescens from the Jiaozhou Bay was grouped with M. fulvescens populations from other origins and closely related to the clade of M. polykrikoides. Our morphological observations and phylogenetic analyses together confirmed the presence of M. fulvescens in China and our monitoring has also observed the species dominant in the dinoflagellate community of the Jiaozhou Bay in the early autumn of 2015, which alerted us to continually monitor this bloom-forming species in the region.