• Journal of Life Science
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.301-308
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• 2004

The morphology of the apical pore complex, the first apical plate and the posterior sulcal plates in a new isolate of Alexandrium tamarense (Lebour) Balech from the Bay of Chinhae was compared with other that of toxic strains of A. tamarense previously isolated from Korean waters. Although this isolate was morphologically identical to these toxic strains, high performance liquid chromatography and mouse bioassay showed no evidence of toxin production. The nontoxic A. tamarense strain showed a strong positive binding activity with PNA lectin, indicating a high density of lactose and galactose residues on the cell surface, and in SDS-PAGE and Western blot analysis a unique protein of about 21-kDa molecular sizes was observed. These findings demonstrate that the use of PNA and immunobioassay could be used to discriminate between toxic and nontoxic strains of A. tamarense.