ABSTRACT
Some species of marine dinoflagellates belonging to genera Alexandrium and Prorocentrum have been responsible for paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) and diarrheic shellfish poisoning (DSP), respectively Morphological and molecular studies of 4 species including Alexandrium sp. 5, Alexandrium sp. 16, Prorocentrum sp. 1 and Prorocentrum sp. 3 that were collected in Northern coast of Vietnam were presented for the first time. By morphologic observations, we identifiedAlexandrium sp. 5 and Alexandrium sp. 16 as Alexandrium minutum, Alexandrium affine, respectively; Prorocentrum sp. 1 and Prorocentrum sp. 3 as Prorocentrum mexicanum. Sequence data from the partial 18S riboxomal RNA genes have been used to generate a phylogenetic framework with database of GenBank. The obtained results of phylogenetic analyses of species of Prorocentrum spp. and Alexandrium spp. based on 18S rDNA sequences are similar to morphological observations. Thus, molecular tool would be helpful for the identification of dinoflagellate species and further taxonomic studies in Vietnam.