Domoic Acid in Cultures of the Diatom Genus Pseudo-nitzschia H. Peragallo in H. Peragallo & M. Peragallo, 1900 and in Bivalve Samples from the Russian Waters of the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Waters of Kamchatka

Content of a dangerous amnesic toxin – domoic acid (DA) – was determined in cultures of the diatom genus Pseudo-nitzschia and in bivalve samples collected in the Russian waters of the Sea of Japan and off the Pacific coast of Kamchatka. For the first time, the presence of DA has been confirmed in cultures of Pseudo-nitzschia pungens (Grunow ex Cleve) G.R. Hasle, 1993 and P. delicatissima (Cleve) Heiden, 1928 from the Pacific coast of Kamchatka with the use of the competitive enzyme-linked immuno-sorbent assay (cELISA). Relatively high concentrations of DA were recorded in the horse mussel Modiolus kurilensis F.R. Bernard, 1983 (2.92 mg/kg based on high-performance chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS) and 2.8 mg/kg based on cELISA) and in the Gray mussel Crenomytilus grayanus (0.07 mg/kg based on HPLC-MS and 0.2 mg/kg based on cELISA) collected in the Sea of Japan. It has been shown that for assessing relatively low concentrations of amnesiotoxin (less than 5 ng/ml in microalgal cultures and less than 0.05 mg/kg in mollusks) cELISA assay is an alternative to HPLC that does not allow to detect DA in such samples.