ABSTRACT
A few dozen species of marine microalgae are able to synthesize toxins. In some cases these molecules can be released from the algal cell (exotoxins) and directly affect marine fauna and fl ora. In most cases, however, they remain intracellular (endotoxins) and it is through feeding (fi lter-feeders, zooplankton, etc.) that contamination of food web takes place and these toxins can potentially affect humans. Different types of toxins (neurotoxins,
1Institut Français de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer, Laboratoire Phycotoxines, rue de l’ile d’Yeu, 44311 Nantes cedex 3, France. aEmail: patrick.lassus@ifremer.fr bEmail: claire.marcaillou@ifremer.fr 2ONIRIS (Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire), La Chantrerie 44307 Nantes Cedex 3, France. Email: patrick.bourdeau@oniris-nantes.fr 3Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer-Université de Bretagne Occidentale, Laboratoire des Sciences de l’Environnement Marin, Unité Mixte de Recherche 539, Technopole Brest Iroise, Place Nicolas Copernic, 29280 Plouzané, France. Email: philippe.soudant@univ-brest.fr *Corresponding author
diarrhetic toxins) can indeed be accumulated by shellfi sh without any damaging effects to these animals, while some toxin families are also accumulated by fi sh with or without toxic effects depending on the species combination.
