Gambierdiscus pacificus de novo Transcriptome

Dinoflagellates of the genus Gambierdiscus are responsible for the production of ciguatoxins, ladder-like polyether compounds that are biotransformed and bioaccumulated in coral reef food webs, resulting in highly toxic top predator fish. The consumption of ciguatoxic fish results in ciguatera fish poisoning, the most prevalent seafood toxin-associated illness in the world. The mechanisms responsible for the biosynthesis of these and other dinoflagellate polyether toxins are poorly understood. In this study we compared polyketide synthase and non-ribosomal peptide synthase transcripts expressed in assembled transcriptomes from a highly ciguatoxic species, G. polynesiensis and a co-occurring low toxicity species G. pacificus, in order to gain insight into shared and unique polyketide synthase machinery that may shed insight into their biosynthetic capacity.