''Amphidinium carterae'' is a species of

dinoflagellate The dinoflagellates (Greek δῖνος ''dinos'' "whirling" and Latin ''flagellum'' "whip, scourge") are a monophyletic group of single-celled eukaryotes constituting the phylum Dinoflagellata and are usually considered algae. Dinoflagellates are ...

s. It was first described by Edward M. Hulburt in 1957, and was named in honour of the British phycologist

Nellie Carter-Montford Nelly (born 1974) is an American rapper, singer, actor and entrepreneur. Nelly or Nellie may also refer to: Places * Nellie, Ohio, an American village * Nellie, Assam, a town in Nagaon district * Nelly Island, Antarctica * Nelly Island, Bermud ...

. The

type locality Type locality may refer to: * Type locality (biology) * Type locality (geology) See also * Local (disambiguation) * Locality (disambiguation) {{disambiguation ...

is Great Pond,

Barnstable County, Massachusetts Barnstable County is a county located in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. At the 2020 census, the population was 228,996. Its shire town is Barnstable. The county consists of Cape Cod and associated islands (some adjacent islands are in Duk ...

, USA. Some strains of this species are considered as toxic (against fungi, for example).

Distribution

''Amphidinium carterae'' is known from both sides of the North Atlantic Ocean, the Bay of Fundy, the Gulf of Mexico, the Baltic Sea, the North Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. It also occurs in Brazil and New Zealand. It is found in shallow waters in coastal bays and estuaries.

Ecology

''Amphidinium carterae'' is a species that sometimes causes algal blooms. In laboratory, the presence of a lysate of an ''A. carterae'' strain affects the embryonic development of

sea urchin Sea urchins () are spiny, globular echinoderms in the class Echinoidea. About 950 species of sea urchin live on the seabed of every ocean and inhabit every depth zone from the intertidal seashore down to . The spherical, hard shells (tests) ...

Use in research

''Amphidinium carterae'' is a photosynthetic organism and can be cultured in the laboratory under suitable conditions of temperature and light. It is a peridinin-containing dinoflagellate, and has been used as a model organism for research. It has a highly unusual

chloroplast A chloroplast () is a type of membrane-bound organelle known as a plastid that conducts photosynthesis mostly in plant and algal cells. The photosynthetic pigment chlorophyll captures the energy from sunlight, converts it, and stores it ...

genome In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding ...

with genes mounted on many small

minicircle Minicircles are small (~4 kb) circular replicons. They occur naturally in some eukaryotic organelle genomes. In the mitochondria-derived kinetoplast of trypanosomes, minicircles encode guide RNAs for RNA editing. In ''Amphidinium'', the chloropl ...

elements, and an unusual pattern of

RNA Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a polymeric molecule essential in various biological roles in coding, decoding, regulation and expression of genes. RNA and deoxyribonucleic acid ( DNA) are nucleic acids. Along with lipids, proteins, and carbohydra ...

metabolism.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q20685874 Species described in 1957 Gymnodiniales Symbiosis