The insidious effect of diatoms on copepod reproduction

The productive regions of the ocean are characterized by seasonal blooms of phytoplankton which are generally dominated by diatoms. This algal class has, therefore, traditionally been regarded as providing the bulk of the food that sustains the marine food chain to top consumers and important fisheries. However, this beneficial role has recently been questioned on the basis of laboratory studies showing that although dominant zooplankton grazers such as copepods feed extensively on diatoms, the hatching success of eggs thus produced is seriously impaired1. Here we present evidence from the field showing that the hatching success of wild copepods feeding on a diatom-dominated bloom is also heavily compromised, with only 12% of the eggs hatching compared with 90% in post-bloom conditions. We report on the structure of the three aldehydes isolated from diatoms that are responsible for this biological activity, and show that these compounds arrest embryonic development in copepod and sea urchin bioassays and have antiproliferative and apoptotic effects on human carcinoma cells.