Chemistry, etiology, and food chain dynamics of marine toxins

Developmental Biology of Neoplastic Growth

“…It is well known that tetrodotoxin (65) is widely distributed in puffer fish of the family Tetraodontidae and is believed to be originated from bacteria of the genera Vibrio, Pseudoalteromonas and others (Yasumoto 2005). At moment, more than ten variants of tetrodotoxin have been isolated from a wide range of organisms including xanthid crabs, horseshoe crabs, frogs, and newts in addition to puffers and other marine animals that mentioned earlier (Miyazawa and Noguchi 2001).…”

“…Ciguatoxin was named for a toxic principle first isolated from a Pacific red snapper (Lutjanus bohar), which frequently causes this disorder (Hashimoto 1979;Nicholson and Lewis 2006). Later, it was isolated in a purity sufficient for chemical analysis from the moray eel Gymnothrax javanicus and its structure was shown to be a complex ladder-shaped polyether (16) Yasumoto 2005;Nicholson and Lewis 2006). Actually, ciguatoxin is a metabolite of ciguatoxin 4B (17); the latter compound is synthesized in the dinoflagellate Gambierdiscus toxicus.…”

“…Actually, ciguatoxin is a metabolite of ciguatoxin 4B (17); the latter compound is synthesized in the dinoflagellate Gambierdiscus toxicus. Ciguatoxin 4B is metabolized to ciguatoxin in fishes as it passes up the food chain from herbivorous fish that feed upon seaweeds containing the dinoflagellate to carnivorous fish (Yasumoto 2005). So far more than 30 ciguatoxin variants have been isolated or detected from fishes or this dinoflagellate.…”

“…The causative agents are thought to be brevetoxins and their metabolites such as brevetoxin B1 (49) (Yasumoto 2005 …”

“…While the xanthid crabs contain palytoxin, saxitoxins, and/or tetrodotoxins (Halstead 1984;Yasumoto 2005), horseshoe crabs often contain either saxitoxins or tetrodotoxins (Halstead 1984;Miyazawa and Noguchi 2001). The origins of these toxins are unknown, except for tetrodotoxins in xanthid crabs that presumably originate from red algae of the genus Jania (Yasumoto 2005). It was also reported that the starfish Asteropecten polyacanthus contains tetrodotoxin (Mosher and Fuhrman 1984).…”