CHARACTERIZATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF PSEUDO-NITZSCHIA SPECIES IN LAMPUNG BAY, INDONESIA

The domoic acid producing Pseudo-nitzschia has received more attention in the recent years due to increasing amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP) cases in many Asian countries. However, information on morphological characters of Pseudo-nitzschia species in Indonesia was very limited, which hinders the attempt to quickly identify the species during a harmful algal blooms in the coastal waters. Thus this study aimed to identify and characterize the Pseudo-nitzschia species found in Lampung Bay, Indonesia. Phytoplankton samples used in this study were taken from the reference collection for plankton (RCP) in Research Center for Oceanography, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (RCO-LIPI). The samples were collected from Padang Cermin area in Lampung, during high tide in 2005. In this research, morphology and morphometry of Pseudo-nitzschia were observed using light microscope (LM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The Pseudo-nitzschia species found in Lampung was labelled as LMP3. Jaccard cluster analysis, using simple average link, showed that LMP3 was Pseudo-nitzschia pungens. The morphology and morphometry of LMP3 were matched perfectly with P. pungens (100% similarity) and differed from other Pseudo-nitzschia species in seriata complex. Unfortunately, it was not known whether the P. pungens LMP3 in this study was the toxin producer strain as this study used preserved sample, thus it was not possible to detect any trace of domoic acid in there.