Azadinium dalianense, a new dinoflagellate species from the Yellow Sea, China

The dinoflagellate genus Azadinium includes species with a plate formula of po, cp, X, 4', 3a, 6 '', 6C, 5S, 6"', 2"" and is part of the family Amphidomataceae with an uncertain order affiliation. Among six species, at least two produce azaspiracids (AZAs), a group of lipophilic toxins that accumulate in shellfish and can cause human health problems. Diversity within the genus might be underestimated at present due to its small size. In the present study, we searched for Azadinium by incubating freshly collected sediments from the Yellow Sea off China and succeeded in detecting a new species, here described as Azadinium dalianense sp. nov. It shared identical hypothecal, cingular and sulcal plates with the other Azadinium species, but it was unique in having only three apical and two anterior intercalary plates. Up to two stalked pyrenoids were present but their location in the cell varied. Phylogenetic analyses based on concatenated small-subunit, partial large-subunit, and internal transcribed spacer sequences revealed that A. dalianense was nested within Azadinium and formed a strongly supported clade with A. poporum. Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analyses did not detect any known AZAs.