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Review
. 2018 Jan 20;10(1):48.
doi: 10.3390/toxins10010048.

Allelopathic and Bloom-Forming Picocyanobacteria in a Changing World

Sylwia Śliwińska-Wilczewska  1 , Jakub Maculewicz  2 , Aldo Barreiro Felpeto  3 , Adam Latała  4
Affiliations
Review

Allelopathic and Bloom-Forming Picocyanobacteria in a Changing World

Sylwia Śliwińska-Wilczewska et al. Toxins (Basel). .

Abstract

Picocyanobacteria are extremely important organisms in the world's oceans and freshwater ecosystems. They play an essential role in primary production and their domination in phytoplankton biomass is common in both oligotrophic and eutrophic waters. Their role is expected to become even more relevant with the effect of climate change. However, this group of photoautotrophic organisms still remains insufficiently recognized. Only a few works have focused in detail on the occurrence of massive blooms of picocyanobacteria, their toxicity and allelopathic activity. Filling the gap in our knowledge about the mechanisms involved in the proliferation of these organisms could provide a better understanding of aquatic environments. In this review, we gathered and described recent information about allelopathic activity of picocyanobacteria and occurrence of their massive blooms in many aquatic ecosystems. We also examined the relationships between climate change and representative picocyanobacterial genera from freshwater, brackish and marine ecosystems. This work emphasizes the importance of studying the smallest picoplanktonic fractions of cyanobacteria.

Keywords: allelochemicals; allelopathy; blooms; climate change; cyanotoxins; picocyanobacteria; picoplankton; secondary metabolites.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Ultrastructure of three Baltic Synechococcus sp. strains: rich in PE (A); rich in PC (B) and rich in PE containing high contents of the PEB (C) analysed using an electron microscope. Photographs by Śliwińska-Wilczewska.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Three Baltic Synechococcus sp. strains: rich in PE (A); rich in PC (B) and rich in PE containing high contents of the PEB (C) under a light and epifluorescence microscope. Top panel depicts picocyanobacterial cells from light microscope, whilst middle and bottom panel illustrates target species under epifluorescence microscope using B-2A and G-2A (which excitation are: 450–490 nm and 510–560 nm, respectively) block filters, respectively. Bar denotes 10 μm. Photographs by Śliwińska-Wilczewska.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Cytograms obtained with co-cultures with three Baltic Synechococcus sp. strains: rich in PE (A), rich in PC (B) and rich in PE containing high contents of the PEB (C)analysed using a Becton Dickinson (BD Biosciences) Accuri™ C6 Plus flow cytometer. Cytograms by Śliwińska-Wilczewska.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Water reservoirs in which mass occurrence of picoplanktonic cyanobacteria was recorded: Mediterranean Sea (A), Baltic Sea (B), Black Sea (C), Hungarian lakes (D), ponds of Morocco (E), San Francisco Bay (F), Gulf of Mexico (G), Florida Bay (H), Pensacola Bay (I), Seto Inland Sea (J) and Gippsland Lakes (K).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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