Selective surface adhesion of the toxic microalga Alexandrium minutum induced by contact with substituted polystyrene derivatives.

On the basis of observations that biospecific random copolymers (RACS) could induce phenotypic changes on contact with selected eukaryotic or prokaryotic cell lines, polystyrene derivatives of known compositions and obtained by random substitutions of sodium sulfonate and of sulfamides of aspartic acid dimethyl ester, phenylalanine and leucine, were placed in contact with swimming dinophytes of the PSP toxin producing species Alexandrium minutum and of the non-toxic species Heterocapsa triquetra. A. minutum cells exhibited higher adhesion for the random copolymer made up of polystyrene (29%), polystyrene aspartic acid dimethyl ester sulfamide (47%) and polystyrene sodium sulfonate (24%), than for samples of this series with different compositions.