Syndinium

[1] Syndinium belongs to order Syndiniales, a candidate for the uncultured group I and II marine alveolates.

[3] Syndinium was first described by French biologist Édouard Chatton in 1910 as parasites of Paracalanus parvus, a marine copepod in the Mediterranean Sea.

[3] In the 2000s, Syndinium is given renewed attention from protist researchers thanks to the maturation of metagenomics techniques such as environmental sequencing, bypassing the need to capture and culture.

[3] In 2005 researchers Skovgaard et al. performed phylogenetic analyses using small subunit ribosomal DNA and proposed that Syndiniophyceae, the class in which Syndinium belongs, is the group II marine alveolates.

[3] By 2008 it was confirmed that the group I and II marine alveolates belong to the order Syndiniales, which includes the genus Syndinium.

[2] Syndinium species have been recorded in a wide range of marine environments in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

[3] From the husk of the host one of three morphologically distinct zoospores emerge: 8-12μm long, 5-8μm wide, resembles an asymmetric gymnodinium and is biflagellar with the anterior flagellum being longer than that of the posterior.