Amphidinium carterae
Species of single-celled organism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Amphidinium carterae is a species of dinoflagellates. It was first described by Edward M. Hulburt in 1957, and was named in honour of the British phycologist Nellie Carter-Montford. The type locality is Great Pond, Barnstable County, Massachusetts, USA.[3] Some strains of this species are considered as toxic (against fungi,[4] for example).
| Amphidinium carterae | |
|---|---|
| |
| LM (above) and SEM (below) micrographs of A. carterae | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Clade: | Sar |
| Clade: | Alveolata |
| Division: | Dinoflagellata |
| Class: | Dinophyceae |
| Order: | Gymnodiniales |
| Family: | Gymnodiniaceae |
| Genus: | Amphidinium |
| Species: | A. carterae |
| Binomial name | |
| Amphidinium carterae Hulburt, 1957[1] | |
| Synonyms[2] | |
| |
Distribution
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 urchins.[6]
Use in research
Amphidinium carterae is a photosynthetic organism and can be cultured in the laboratory under suitable conditions of temperature and light.[5] It is a peridinin-containing dinoflagellate, and has been used as a model organism for research. It has a highly unusual chloroplast genome with genes mounted on many small minicircle elements, and an unusual pattern of RNA metabolism.[7]