Determining the Advantages, Costs, and Trade-Offs of a Novel Sodium Channel Mutation in the Copepod Acartia hudsonica to Paralytic Shellfish Toxins (PST).

The marine copepod Acartia hudsonica was shown to be adapted to dinoflagellate prey, Alexandrium fundyense, which produce paralytic shellfish toxins (PST). Adaptation to PSTs in other organisms is caused by a mutation in the sodium channel. Recently, a mutation in the sodium channel in A.

No evidence for induction or selection of mutant sodium channel expression in the copepod Acartia husdsonica challenged with the toxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium fundyense.

Some species in the dinoflagellate genus Alexandrium spp. produce a suite of neurotoxins that block sodium channels, known as paralytic shellfish toxins (PST), which have deleterious effects on grazers. Populations of the ubiquitous copepod grazer Acartia hudsonica that have co-occurred with toxic Alexandrium spp.