Chattonella
Chattonella is a genus of the marine class raphidophytes associated with red tides and can be found in the phylum Heterokontophyta in stramenopiles. These unicellular flagellates are found in brackish ecosystems. The genus Chattonella is composed of five species: C. subsalsa, C. antiqua, C. marina, C. minima, and C. ovata. Structure and Synthesis The Chattonella species contain an ectoplasm with vacuoles, chloroplasts, and mucocysts and an endoplasm with a nucleus and other organelles. Due to their lack of cell wall, these species have the ability to change size and shape. Therefore, fish populations cannot recognize the toxins and cannot defend themselves. Each species of the Chattonella genus is very similar or identical in DNA sequencing. C. minima has an identical morphological structure to C. antiqua, so researchers are developing ways to search for the gene responsible for differentiating between the different Chattonella strains. The only currently known difference between the two strains is the number of chromosomes; C. minima contains 90-110 chromosomes while C. marina contains 29 chromosomes. Chattonella algal blooms synthesis is compared to "diatom resting hypothesis" with the only major difference being that Chattonella cysts can germinate in the dark as opposed to diatoms which can germinate only