High diversity of microcystin chemotypes within a summer bloom of the cyanobacterium microcystis botrys

11Citations
Citations of this article
31Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

Abstract

The fresh-water cyanobacterium Microcystis is known to form blooms world-wide, and is often responsible for the production of microcystins found in lake water. Microcystins are non-ribosomal peptides with toxic effects, e.g. on vertebrates, but their function remains largely unresolved. Moreover, not all strains produce microcystins, and many different microcystin variants have been described. Here we explored the diversity of microcystin variants within Microcystis botrys, a common bloom-former in Sweden. We isolated a total of 130 strains through the duration of a bloom in eutrophic Lake Vomb, and analyzed their microcystin profiles with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). We found that microcystin producing (28.5%) and non-producing (71.5%) M. botrys strains, co-existed throughout the bloom. However, microcystin producing strains were more prevalent towards the end of the sampling period. Overall, 26 unique M. botrys chemotypes were identified, and while some chemotypes re-occurred, others were found only once. The M. botrys chemotypes showed considerable variation both in terms of number of microcystin variants, as well as in what combinations the variants occurred. To our knowledge, this is the first report on microcystin chemotype variation and dynamics in M. botrys. In addition, our study verifies the co-existence of microcystin and non-microcystin producing strains, and we propose that environmental conditions may be implicated in determining their composition.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Johansson, E., Legrand, C., Björnerås, C., Godhe, A., Mazur-Marzec, H., Säll, T., & Rengefors, K. (2019). High diversity of microcystin chemotypes within a summer bloom of the cyanobacterium microcystis botrys. Toxins, 11(12). https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins11120698

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free