Oxidative stress response in the red alga Furcellaria lumbricalis (Huds.) Lamour. due to exposure and uptake of the cyanobacterial toxin nodularin from Nodularia spumigena

Abstract

The phenomenon of cyanobacterial blooms in the Baltic Sea is getting very common during the last few years. These blooms mostly consist of Nodularia species which can be toxic, producing nodularins. As some of these blooms are wind driven to the coastline, an influence of the aquatic flora, especially on the macroalgae is expected. One of these common macroalgae is the red alga Furcellaria lumbricalis, living on hard bottom substrates in the lower part of the phytobenthic zone. Uptake of nodularin into red alga the generation of oxidative stress, respectively the antioxidative response is shown measuring the activity of several antioxidative enzymes. The uptake of nodularins by the red alga is shown. The toxins caused oxidative stress in the algae and induced an antioxidative defence.