Observation, Isolation and Characterization of Microalgal Red Tide Agent Dinoflagellates Prorocentrum sp.

Dinophyte species inhabit from polar, temperate to tropical waters, but tend to be more abundant in tropical or warm waters. The Dinophytes is suspected as one of the genera causing red tide in the sea with their yellow-redish colour that make the sea glows in the night because of their bioluminescence activity. In this work, the Dinophyte was isolated from offshore, and water sample collected in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. Purposes of the studies were for understanding the taxonomic features in particular of the dinophytes that usually occur in blooming areas. The species has specific characters, such as oval shape ( 20-30 μm long and 1-20 μm wide), yellow chloroplast, large nucleus, possesses two different flagellas which one of them is specific called transfer flagellum, no middle furrow and beautiful ornament cell covering (theca) with spine. Based on the partial sequencing of the 18 S rDNA, the Dinophyte is precisely same as the reference strain Prorocentrum MBIC11147 (100%), which was determined as Prorocentrum sp. In the future, this study could be uses as model of sequel behavior of the microalgal red tide.