Brevetoxins: Chemistry, mechanism of action, and methods of detection

Brevetoxins are produced by the unarmored marine dinoflagellate Gymnodinium breve (Prychodiscus brevis), an organism linked to red tide outbreaks in the Gulf of Mexico, New Zealand, and Japan. These toxins are responsible for toxicity to marine animals, neurotoxic shellfish poisoning in humans, and respiratory distress if the toxins are inhaled in sea spray. Dinoflagellates are eukaryotes and most are photosynthetic, with at least one form in the life cycle being motile. Of the total known 2000 species of dinoflagellates, only about 20 species have been shown to produce specific toxins. G. breve is a unicellular alga which is the causative organism of red tide resulting from blooms of this toxic dinoflagellate along the west coast of Florida and elsewhere in the Gulf of Mexico. A similar toxic species occurs in Spain, Japan, and more recently in New Zealand waters.