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. In contrast to this, A. minutum adhesion remained very low throughout the phenylalanine and leucine copolymer series. These results indicate that the cell-substrate adhesion phenomenon is dependent upon the final composition of the copolymer, i.e. that it is composition-specific. Taxonomic specificity was then demonstrated by presenting the PSAspOMe copolymer series with cells of the non toxic species H. triquetra (Peridinialia) related to A. minutum (Gonyaulacacea), and by observing no specific association, i.e. no signal above background levels at any composition. Specific ligand-cell adhesion is evidenced for the first time between biospecific RACS and phytoplankton, which may inspire a new generation of structures to be used in aquaculture as protective nets over shellfish clusters, or as selective filtering devices to assist in shellfish depuration from toxic microalgae.