PHAGOTROPHIC FEEDING AND ITS IMPORTANCE TO THE LIFE CYCLE OF THE HOLOZOIC DINOFLAGELLATE,GYMNODINIUM FUNGIFORME1

The holozoic dinoflagellate, Gymnodinium fungiforme Anissimova, has been observed in both asexually and sexually reproducing cultures. Asexual reproduction is characterized by zoosporangium formation and subsequent new cell release. Sexuality is gametic, and planozygotes and hypnozygotes are present. The life cycle is highly dependent on feeding, and in food-depleted cultures the swimming cells rapidly disappear. These are replaced with resistant long-term resting cysts. Despite its small size (8.5–19 μm), G. fungiforme can feed on prey as large as the ciliated protozoan, Condylostoma magnum Spiegel (600–1000 μm in length), or small injured metazoans, and has been cultured phagotrophically with the chlorophyte, Dunaliella salina Teodoresco as a food source. Eleven additional species of algae including 1 chlorophyte, 7 chrysophytes and 3 rhodophytes, however, were not suitable as food sources. Feeding is characterized by the formation of ‘dynamic aggregations’ of hundreds of dinoflagellates that attach to the surface of a prey organism by a peduncle. G. fungiforme ingests the cytoplasm or body fluids of its prey and a feeding aggregation can ingest a C. magnum in 20–30 minutes.