The genus Parvilucifera (Perkinsozoa, Alveolata) comprises parasitoid species that infect dinoflagellates. However, they are scarcely reported and little is known about their diversity, distribution, habitat and host range. Such aspects have been explored in this study either at the regional scale of Spain and at global scale. At regional scale, we commonly reported them during harmful algal bloom events, infecting toxic or bloom-forming dinoflagellates like Alexandrium minutum, Dinophysis sacculus, Barrufeta bravensis, Prorocentrum micans or Durinskia baltica. These parasitoids seem to be well-adapted to the ecology of their blooming hosts given that the high reproduction rate of Parvilucifera and their density-dependent transmission allow a rapid increase of the parasitoid population during the outbreaks of its hosts. Several species of Parvilucifera were recurrently detected, sometimes coexisting at the same location, and clearly some of them represent new diversity yet to be described. At global scale, most of the diversity of Perkinsozoa in marine waters worldwide is only represented by unidentified environmental sequences. During recent years, extensive studies have been conducted to explore the diversity of marine protists using high-throughput sequencing techniques, including circumnavigation cruises (BioMarks, Ocean Sampling Day, Malaspina, Tara). We have used some available datasets to study the presence of the different species of Parvilucifera. The results obtained suggest a global distribution of Parvilucifera and its preference for coastal and shallow environments, in agreement with its infection strategy

17th International Conference on Harmful Algae (ICHA), 9-14 October 2016, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil.-- 1 page

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