Cyanobacteria Affect Fitness and Genetic Structure of Experimental Daphnia Populations.

Zooplankton communities can be strongly affected by cyanobacterial blooms, especially species of genus Daphnia, which are key-species in lake ecosystems. Here, we explored the effect of microcystin/nonmicrocystin (MC/non-MC) producing cyanobacteria in the diet of experimental Daphnia galeata populations composed of eight genotypes. We used D. galeata clones hatched from ephippia 10 to 60 years old, which were first tested in monocultures, and then exposed for 10 weeks as mixed populations to three food treatments consisting of green algae combined with cyanobacteria able/unable of producing MC. We measured the expression of nine genes potentially involved in Daphnia acclimation to cyanobacteria: six protease genes, one ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme gene, and two rRNA genes, and then we tracked the dynamics of the genotypes in mixed populations. The expression pattern of one protease and the ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme genes was positively correlated with the increased fitness of competing clones in the presence of cyanobacteria, suggesting physiological plasticity. The genotype dynamics in mixed populations was only partially related to the growth rates of clones in monocultures and varied strongly with the food. Our results revealed strong intraspecific differences in the tolerance of D. galeata clones to MC/non-MC-producing cyanobacteria in their diet, suggesting microevolutionary effects.

Archaeal and bacterial diversity in two hot spring microbial mats from a geothermal region in Romania.

The diversity of archaea and bacteria was investigated in two slightly alkaline, mesophilic hot springs from the Western Plain of Romania. Phylogenetic analysis showed a low diversity of Archaea, only three Euryarchaeota taxa being detected: Methanomethylovorans thermophila, Methanomassiliicoccus luminyensis and Methanococcus aeolicus. Twelve major bacterial groups were identified, both springs being dominated by Cyanobacteria, Chloroflexi and Proteobacteria. While at the phylum/class-level the microbial mats share a similar biodiversity; at the species level the geothermal springs investigated seem to be colonized by specific consortia. The dominant taxa were filamentous heterocyst-containing Fischerella, at 45 °C and non-heterocyst Leptolyngbya and Geitlerinema, at 55 °C. Other bacterial taxa (Thauera sp., Methyloversatilis universalis, Pannonibacter phragmitetus, Polymorphum gilvum, Metallibacterium sp. and Spartobacteria) were observed for the first time in association with a geothermal habitat. Based on their bacterial diversity the two mats were clustered together with other similar habitats from Europe and part of Asia, most likely the water temperature playing a major role in the formation of specific microbial communities that colonize the investigated thermal springs.

The combined impact of low temperatures and shifting phosphorus availability on the competitive ability of cyanobacteria.

In freshwater systems, cyanobacteria are strong competitors under enhanced temperature and eutrophic conditions. Understanding their adaptive and evolutionary potential to multiple environmental states allows us to accurately predict their response to future conditions. To better understand if the combined impacts of temperature and nutrient limitation could suppress the cyanobacterial blooms, a single strain of Microcystis aeruginosa was inoculated into natural phytoplankton communities with different nutrient conditions: oligotrophic, eutrophic and eutrophic with the addition of bentophos. We found that the use of the bentophos treatment causes significant differences in prokaryotic and eukaryotic communities. This resulted in reduced biodiversity among the eukaryotes and a decline in cyanobacterial abundance suggesting phosphorus limitation had a strong impact on the community structure. The low temperature during the experiment lead to the disappearance of M. aeruginosa in all treatments and gave other phytoplankton groups a competitive advantage leading to the dominance of the eukaryotic families that have diverse morphologies and nutritional modes. These results show cyanobacteria have a reduced competitive advantage under certain temperature and nutrient limiting conditions and therefore, controlling phosphorus concentrations could be a possible mitigation strategy for managing harmful cyanobacterial blooms in a future warmer climate.

Methodological constraints in the molecular biodiversity study of a thermomineral spring cyanobacterial mat: a case study.

The biodiversity of a specific cyanobacterial mat associated to a thermomineral spring from the Western Plain of Romania was investigated. Light and electron microscopy, together with molecular tools (denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis-DGGE, automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis-ARISA and amplified ribosomal DNA restriction analysis-ARDRA), based on 16S rDNA and 16S-23S internal transcribed spacer markers were used. Based on the partial 16S rRNA fragments sequenced, eight cyanobacterial taxons were identified, all belonging to the Oscillatoriales order, Phormidium and Leptolyngbya being dominant. A significant difference was observed, in comparison with the morphological approach. In certain conditions, DGGE can provide misleading information due to multiple melting domains in the same sequence, to multiple rrn operons in the same genome and due to unspecific hybridization among closely related sequences. This can lead to an overestimated species abundance which can cause incorrect description of the microbial community investigated. Additional techniques, such as ARISA and ARDRA, can improve the microbial biodiversity studies, thus providing optimal results.

The impact of cation concentration on Microcystis (cyanobacteria) scum formation.

Cyanobacterial scums at the surface of the lakes are potentially harmful phenomena with increasing occurrence in the last decades, and the causes that lead to their formation are still an unresolved issue. In order to better understand what triggers the scums, we investigated the effect of several Mg2+ and Ca2+ ion concentrations in promoting them in eight Microcystis aeruginosa strains. The possibility to prevent scum formation by using the ion chelator EDTA was also explored. We found that in some strains the cell aggregation takes place under lower ion source concentrations (20 mM MgSO4 or CaCl2), while in others this phenomenon does not occur even at 60 mM concentration. The scum formation correlated to the amount of extracellular polymeric substances (between 234 and 351 µg/cell). EDTA failed to prevent the scum formation in most strains, and in turn it caused cell lysis followed by the release of cellular content into the culture medium. We emphasize the relevance of these results for cyanobacterial scum formation in the environment and we also suggest that controlling the salinity of the medium (by manipulating the ion concentration) is a potentially efficient method for biomass harvesting in large ponds/tanks.

Selection of proper reference genes for the cyanobacterium Synechococcus PCC 7002 using real-time quantitative PCR.

Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 is known to be tolerant to most of the environmental factors in natural habitats of Cyanobacteria. Gene expression can be easily studied in this cyanobacterium, as its complete genome sequence is available. These properties make Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 an appropriate model organism for biotechnological applications. To study the gene expression in Cyanobacteria, real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) can be used, but as this is a highly sensitive method, data standardization is indicated between samples. The most commonly used strategy is normalization against internal reference genes. Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002 has not yet been evaluated for the best reference genes. In this work, six candidate genes were analyzed for this purpose. Cyanobacterial cultures were exposed to several stress conditions, and three different algorithms were used for ranking the reference genes: geNorm, NormFinder, and BestKeeper. Moreover, gene expression stability value M and single-control normalization error E were calculated. Our data provided a list of reference genes that can be used in qPCR experiments in Synechococcus sp. PCC 7002.

Genetic contributions of the serotonin transporter to social learning of fear and economic decision making.

Serotonin (5-HT) modulates emotional and cognitive functions such as fear conditioning (FC) and decision making. This study investigated the effects of a functional polymorphism in the regulatory region (5-HTTLPR) of the human 5-HT transporter (5-HTT) gene on observational FC, risk taking and susceptibility to framing in decision making under uncertainty, as well as multidimensional anxiety and autonomic control of the heart in healthy volunteers. The present results indicate that in comparison to the homozygotes for the long (l) version of 5-HTTLPR, the carriers of the short (s) version display enhanced observational FC, reduced financial risk taking and increased susceptibility to framing in economic decision making. We also found that s-carriers have increased trait anxiety due to threat in social evaluation, and ambiguous threat perception. In addition, s-carriers also show reduced autonomic control over the heart, and a pattern of reduced vagal tone and increased sympathetic activity in comparison to l-homozygotes. This is the first genetic study that identifies the association of a functional polymorphism in a key neurotransmitter-related gene with complex social-emotional and cognitive processes. The present set of results suggests an endophenotype of anxiety disorders, characterized by enhanced social learning of fear, impaired decision making and dysfunctional autonomic activity.