Analysis of phytoplankton in Tsimlyansk Reservoir (Russia) for the presence of cyanobacterial hepato- and neurotoxins

Abstract

Although the water bodies of southern Russia experience the most extreme effects of cyanobacterial blooms, molecular genetic data on the composition of toxigenic cyanobacteria in this region have been absent. Screening for the genes responsible for the synthesis of hepatotoxins (microcystins and cylindrospermopsin) and neurotoxins (anatoxin-a and saxitoxins) in cyanobacteria from the Tsimlyansk reservoir on the Don River was carried out. The presence of microcystin-producing Microcystis and Planktothrix populations, as well as of cyanobacteria capable of synthesis of a neurotoxin anatoxin-a was revealed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). A hypothesis of the presence of anatoxin-a-producing Planktothrix rubescens population in the phytoplankton of the Tsimlyansk reservoir is proposed. The obtained PCR data were confirmed by the results of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and liquid chromatography/mass-spectrometry (LC/MS). Anatoxin-a and five microcystin variants were identified in the phytoplankton biomass.