Microbioassay for the analysis of toxic factors produced by red tide phytoplankton

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Harmful algal blooms (HABs) are one of serious environmental problems. To investigate the toxic mechanism of HABs species, direct exposure experiments against fish or shellfish have been conducted. However, such exposure experiments generally require special animal rearing facilities and mass-culture of phytoplankton. Usage of appropriate cultured cells as an alternative for whole living animals seems to be a promising strategy. We evaluated lactate dehydrogenase (LDH)-release assay as a simple estimation method for toxic potential of harmful algal species at cellular level. Live cell suspension of Karenia mikimotoi (strain SUO-1), which is highly toxic to rotifer and has potent hemolytic activity, induced the release of significant levels of LDH from all the cell lines tested in cell-density and time-dependent manners, whereas another strain of K. mikimotoi (strain FUK), which is less-toxic to rotifer and has low hemolytic activity, showed fairly low activities.