ArticleThe ISME journal2019
The cost of toxin production in phytoplankton: the case of PST producing dinoflagellates.
Article in The ISME journal, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 43 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effects of Nutrient Limitation on the Synthesis of N-Rich Phytoplankton Toxins: A Meta-Analysis.Toxins · 2020Pooled it
- Costs and benefits of phytoplankton motility.ArXiv · 2025Article
- Multiple defense is an effective antipredator strategy in dinoflagellates.ISME communications · 2025Article
- Deciphering interactions between the marine dinoflagellate Prorocentrum lima and the fungus Aspergillus pseudoglaucus.Environmental microbiology · 2023Article
- Metagenomic Analysis of the Species Composition and Seasonal Distribution of Marine Dinoflagellate Communities in Four Korean Coastal Regions.Microorganisms · 2022Article
- Development of an Efficient Extraction Method for Harvesting Gymnodimine-A from Large-Scale Cultures ofToxins · 2021Article
- Grazer-Induced Chemical Defense in a Microcystin-Producing Microcystis aeruginosa (Cyanobacteria) Exposed to Daphnia gessneri Infochemicals.Journal of chemical ecology · 2021Article
- Insights intoBiology · 2021Article
- Molecular detection of some toxogenic cyanobacteria in Tigris River in Baghdad-Iraq.Molecular biology reports · 2021Article
- Predator-induced defence in a dinoflagellate generates benefits without direct costs.The ISME journal · 2021Article
- Cell-growth gene expression reveals a direct fitness cost of grazer-induced toxin production in red tide dinoflagellate prey.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2021Article
- On biological evolution and environmental solutions.The Science of the total environment · 2020Article
- The Cost of Toxicity in Microalgae: Direct Evidence From the DinoflagellateFrontiers in microbiology · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Many species of phytoplankton produce toxins that may provide protection from grazing. In that case one would expect toxin production to be costly; else all species would evolve toxicity. However, experiments have consistently failed to show any costs. Here, we show that costs of toxin production are environment dependent but can be high. We develop a fitness optimization model to estimate rate, costs, and benefits of toxin production, using PST (paralytic shellfish toxin) producing dinoflagellates as an example. Costs include energy and material (nitrogen) costs estimated from well-established biochemistry of PSTs, and benefits are estimated from relationship between toxin content and grazing mortality. The model reproduces all known features of PST production: inducibility in the presence of grazer cues, low toxicity of nitrogen-starved cells, but high toxicity of P-limited and light-limited cells. The model predicts negligible reduction in cell division rate in nitrogen replete cells, consistent with observations, but >20% reduction when nitrogen is limiting and abundance of grazers high. Such situation is characteristic of coastal and oceanic waters during summer when blooms of toxic algae typically develop. The investment in defense is warranted, since the net growth rate is always higher in defended than in undefended cells.
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Registered trials
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