Biology 3602A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 37: Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning, Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning, Algal Bloom
5 Aug 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
These algal blooms happen from unnatural enrichment of macronutrients in aquatic environments. They cause such incidents called red tide b/c of red chlorophyll from red algae. Left: satellite photo with enhanced colour, showing chlorophyll off the south coast of the. In florida, red tide affected manatees algal blooms causing physiological effects on manatees, going into seizures some kind of neurological effect. One really important algae responsible for harmful algal bloom is called alexandrium fundyense (which is from the bay of fundy) Dinoflagellates can put out a toxin called saxitoxin, which can cause a disease called paralytic shellfish poisoning. Saxitoxin blocks voltage-gated sodium channels, responsible for depolarizing a membrane once it reaches threshold. When reached membrane pot"l threshold, causes voltage-gated na channels to open and then you get an ap unless there"s saxitoxin in there. Saxitoxin will block the sodium channel so even if it opens up sodium won"t flow and.
