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Harmful algal blooms of the dinoflagellate Cochlodinium polykrikoides are of worldwide environmental concern. Previous field studies have demonstrated the association of such algal blooms with free-living bacteria (FLB) and particle-associated bacteria (PAB). In the present study, we report evidence for bacterial association with C. polykrikoides in laboratory culture. Sampling was performed at different growth stages (lag, exponential and stationary) and pyrosequencing was used to identify taxa. As a result, the community structures of FLB and PAB were elucidated and significant differences between FLB and PAB were identified by hierarchical cluster analysis and the similarity profiles test (p = .05). The relative abundances of bacterial operational taxonomic units distinctly changed in response to the different phases of C. polykrikoides growth. The Roseobacter genus Marivita and the Flavobacterium genus Winogradskyella were dominant in the FLB and PAB associated with C. polykrikoides, respectively. The Roseobacter clade, which has also exhibited associations with C. polykrikoides blooms in field samples, may influence host cell growth through the provision of vitamins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the occurrence of Cochlodinium polykrikoides bloom was predicted based on spatial information. The South Sea of Korea (SSK), where C. polykrikoides bloom occurs every year, was divided into three concentrated areas. For each domain, the optimal model configuration was determined by designing a verification experiment with 1–3 convolutional neural network (CNN) layers and 50–300 training times. Finally, we predicted the occurrence of C. polykrikoides bloom based on 3 CNN layers and 300 training times that showed the best results. The experimental results for the three areas showed that the average pixel accuracy was 96.22%, mean accuracy was 91.55%, mean IU was 81.5%, and frequency weighted IU was 84.57%, all of which showed above 80% prediction accuracy, indicating the achievement of appropriate performance. Our results show that the occurrence of C. polykrikoides bloom can be derived from atmosphere and ocean forecast information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Aside from East Asia, historical records also showed the wide distribution of harmful raphidophyte Chattonella in Southeast Asian coastal waters. • Only one genotype, Chattonella marina complex, has been observed in East Asia. • Two Chattonella genotypes, C. marina complex and C. subsalsa , have occurred in Southeast Asia and were associated with fisheries damage. • Oboe-shaped mucocyst was observed from the cultures of C. marina from Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan and Russia for the first time. Red tides and associated fisheries damage caused by the harmful raphidophyte Chattonella were reassessed based on the documented local records for 50 years to understand the distribution and economic impacts of the harmful species in the Western Pacific. Blooms of Chattonella with fisheries damage have been recorded in East Asia since 1969, whereas they have been only recorded in Southeast Asia since the 1980s. Occurrences of Chattonella have been documented from six Southeast Asian countries, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam, with mass mortalities mainly of farmed shrimp in 1980–1990s, and farmed fish in 2000–2010s. These occurrences have been reported with the names of C. antiqua, C. marina, C. ovata, C. subsalsa and Chattonella sp., owing to the difficulty of microscopic species identification, and many were not supported with molecular data. To determine the distribution of C. marina complex and C. subsalsa in Southeast Asia, molecular phylogeny and microscopic observation were also carried out for cultures obtained from Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, Philippines, Russia, Singapore and Thailand. The results revealed that only the genotype of C. marina complex has been detected from East Asia (China, Japan, Korea and Russia), whereas both C. marina complex (Indonesia and Malaysia) and C. subsalsa (Philippines, Singapore and Thailand) were found in Southeast Asia. Ejection of mucocysts has been recognized as a diagnostic character of C. subsalsa , but it was also observed in our cultures of C. marina isolated from Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, and Russia. Meanwhile, the co-occurrences of the two harmful Chattonella species in Southeast Asia, which are difficult to distinguish solely based on their morphology, suggest the importance of molecular identification of Chattonella genotypes for further understanding of their distribution and negative impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the survival rate of Cochlodinium polykrikoides after yellow loess addition and conducted culture experiments to investigate the possibility that red tides maybe caused by C. polykrikoides individuals that are precipitated when loess is added. At least 15% of the C. polykrikoides cells that precipitated to the bottom layer either by the addition of loess or no addition survived for 1 week at all growth phases, rather than disappearing immediately after precipitating. However no live cells were observed after 20 days, regardless of phase or loess addition. In the exponential phase, the number of C. polykrikoides cells increased to >2886 cells ml(-1) after loess was added. However in the stationary phase, the number of cells did not increase until 18 days. In the exponential phase, those C. polykrikoides that survived precipitation caused by scattering loess on cultures did not appear to have the ability to cause red tides again because of the short red tide periods in the field, long lag time after loess addition, and low survival rate after loess addition.