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The seagrass Zostera marina harbors growth-inhibiting bacteria against the toxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium tamarense

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Abstract

Seagrasses are known to have allelopathic activity to reduce growth of phytoplankton. We found growth-inhibiting bacteria (strains E8 and E9) from Zostera marina possessing strong activity against the toxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium tamarense. Strain E9 markedly inhibited growth of A. tamarense even with initial inoculum size as small as 2.9 cells ml−1. This bacterium also had growth-inhibiting effects on the red-tide raphidophytes Chattonella antiqua and Heterosigma akashiwo, the dinoflagellate Heterocapsa circularisquama, and the diatom Chaetoceros mitra. Small subunit (SSU) ribosomal DNA (rDNA) sequencing analysis demonstrated that the most probable affiliation of these strains was Flavobacteriaceae, and proved that another inhibitory bacterial strain (E8) was the same species as strain E9. Two other bacterial strains (E4-2 and E10), showing different colony color and isolated from the same seagrass sample, revealed no growth-inhibiting activity. Interestingly, strain E4-2 showed the same sequences as E8 and E9 (100 %), and strain E10 matched E8 and E9 with 99.80 % similarity. Growth-inhibiting bacteria against the toxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium tamarense associated with seagrass, such as Flavobacterium spp. E8 and E9, are able to repress shellfish poisoning besides the allelopathic activity of seagrass itself.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Dr. Hiroyuki Munehara of Usujiri Marine Station, Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere, Hokkaido University, for his kind arrangement of seagrass sampling. We thank Mr. Kiyoshi Nomura for his technical assistance for sampling at Usujiri Port. This study was supported in part by the project of Hakodate Green Innovation of UMI (Universal Marine Industry).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Plankton Laboratory, Graduate School of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University, 3-1-1 Minato-cho, Hakodate, Hokkaido, 041-8611, Japan

    Yuka Onishi, Kohei Ohgi, Atsushi Yamaguchi & Ichiro Imai

  2. Department of Botany, National Museum of Nature and Science, 4-1-1 Amakubo, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-0005, Japan

    Yuka Mohri & Akihiro Tuji

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  1. Yuka Onishi
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  2. Yuka Mohri
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Correspondence to Ichiro Imai.

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Onishi, Y., Mohri, Y., Tuji, A. et al. The seagrass Zostera marina harbors growth-inhibiting bacteria against the toxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium tamarense . Fish Sci 80, 353–362 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12562-013-0688-4

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