Distribution of Dinophysis species and their association with lipophilic phycotoxins in plankton from the Argentine Sea.

Dinophysis is a cosmopolitan genus of marine dinoflagellates, considered as the major proximal source of diarrheic shellfish toxins and the only producer of pectenotoxins (PTX). From three oceanographic expeditions carried out during autumn, spring and late summer along the Argentine Sea (∼38-56°S), lipophilic phycotoxins were determined by liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) in size-fractionated plankton samples. Lipophilic toxin profiles were associated with species composition by microscopic analyses of toxigenic phytoplankton. Pectenotoxin-2 and PTX-11 were frequently found together with the presence of Dinophysis acuminata and Dinophysis tripos. By contrast, okadaic acid was rarely detected and only in trace concentrations, and dinophysistoxins were not found. The clear predominance of PTX over other lipophilic toxins in Dinophysis species from the Argentine Sea is in accordance with previous results obtained from north Patagonian Gulfs of the Argentine Sea, and from coastal waters of New Zealand, Chile, Denmark and United States. Dinophysis caudata was rarely found and it was confined to the north of the sampling area. Because of low cell densities, neither D. caudata nor Dinophysis norvegica could be biogeographically related to lipophilic toxins in this study. Nevertheless, the current identification of D. norvegica in the southern Argentine Sea is the first record for the southwestern Atlantic Ocean. Given the typical toxigenicity of this species on a global scale, this represents an important finding for future surveillance of plankton-toxin associations.