Wright J L, Bird C J, de Freitas A S, Hampson D, McDonald J, Quilliam M A
Can Dis Wkly Rep. 1990 Sep;16 Suppl 1E:21-6.
The causative agent of toxicity in cultured mussels from a localized area of eastern Prince Edward Island has been identified as domoic acid, a neuroexcitatory amino acid. The toxin was isolated by a number of different bioassay-directed separation techniques including high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), high-voltage paper electrophoresis (HVPE), and ion-exchange chromatography, and characterized by a number of spectroscopic techniques including ultraviolet, infrared, mass spectrometry, and nuclear magnetic resonance. The isolation and purification methods are described in detail and some new analytical data for domoic acid are reported. A plankton bloom at the time of the outbreak gave positive mouse bioassays and consisted almost entirely of the pennate diatom, Nitzschia pungens f. multiseries. A positive correlation was found between the number of N. pungens cells and the concentration of domoic acid in the plankton. N. pungens f. multiseries isolated from Cardigan Bay produced domoic acid de novo during stationary phase culture at levels (1 to 10 pg/cell) comparable to values estimated for N. pungens in the plankton samples. We conclude that N. pungens was the major source of the domoic acid in toxic mussels in eastern Prince Edward Island. The recurrence, in November 1988, of a monospecific bloom of N. pungens and the presence of domoic acid in plankton and mussels reinforces this conclusion.
爱德华王子岛东部局部地区养殖贻贝中毒的致病因子已被确定为软骨藻酸，一种神经兴奋性氨基酸。通过多种不同的生物测定导向分离技术，包括高效液相色谱法（HPLC）、高压纸电泳法（HVPE）和离子交换色谱法，分离出了该毒素，并通过多种光谱技术，包括紫外、红外、质谱和核磁共振对其进行了表征。详细描述了分离和纯化方法，并报告了软骨藻酸的一些新分析数据。疫情爆发时的一次浮游生物大量繁殖在小鼠生物测定中呈阳性，几乎完全由羽纹硅藻尖刺菱形藻多列变种组成。在浮游生物中，尖刺菱形藻细胞数量与软骨藻酸浓度之间发现了正相关关系。从卡迪根湾分离出的尖刺菱形藻多列变种在稳定期培养期间从头产生软骨藻酸，其水平（1至10皮克/细胞）与浮游生物样本中尖刺菱形藻的估计值相当。我们得出结论，尖刺菱形藻是爱德华王子岛东部有毒贻贝中软骨藻酸的主要来源。1988年11月尖刺菱形藻单种大量繁殖的再次出现以及浮游生物和贻贝中软骨藻酸的存在强化了这一结论。
