Prorocentrum lima is distributed in the four major sea areas of China, which not only affects Marine ecology, but also poses serious risks to food safety and aquaculture. According to the existing studies, the diversity distribution of P. lima has been generally confirmed, and the impact of this feature on the difference of DSTs components need to be assessed urgently. Hence, in this paper, we investigated the geographical differences in growth, toxicity production and esterified composition of ten strains of P. lima isolated from four major marine areas offshore China. After 21 days of cultivation, our results showed  that SHG and QD in the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea areas grew slowly and the maximum algal cell density was only 3.25×10⁴ cells·mL^-1, while WZD and 3XS in the South China Sea had the highest growth rate and the highest maximum algal density of 9.40×10⁴ cells·mL^-1. The total toxin content in single cells ranged from 4.76 to 10.10 pg·cell^-1, of which, contrary to the growth rate and the maximum algal density, the total toxin content was detected of SHG and QD in the Yellow Bohai Sea, which was as high as 10.10 pg·cell^-1. In addition, more than 12 kinds of esterified components were detected in all the 10 strains of P. lima, accounting for 43.90%-92.20% of the total toxin ratio, which was still the highest in SHG and QD strains. In general, there are significant differences in growth, toxicity production and esterification of P. lima in the four coastal waters of China, which may be caused by long-term evolution to adapt to regional environment. It will be one of the focuses of future research to study the regional variation and distribution characteristics of P. lima.
 

Prorocentrum lima, diarrhetic shellfish toxins, diversity, geographical feature