Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Apr 4;16(4):116.
doi: 10.3390/md16040116.

Specific Chemical and Genetic Markers Revealed a Thousands-Year Presence of Toxic Nodularia spumigena in the Baltic Sea

Marta Cegłowska  1 , Anna Toruńska-Sitarz  2 , Grażyna Kowalewska  3 , Hanna Mazur-Marzec  4   5
Affiliations

Specific Chemical and Genetic Markers Revealed a Thousands-Year Presence of Toxic Nodularia spumigena in the Baltic Sea

Marta Cegłowska et al. Mar Drugs. .

Abstract

In the Baltic Sea, diazotrophic cyanobacteria have been present for thousands of years, over the whole brackish water phase of the ecosystem. However, our knowledge about the species composition of the cyanobacterial community is limited to the last several decades. In the current study, the presence of species-specific chemical and genetic markers in deep sediments were analyzed to increase the existing knowledge on the history of toxic Nodularia spumigena blooms in the Baltic Sea. As chemical markers, three cyclic nonribosomal peptides were applied: the hepatotoxic nodularin, which in the sea was detected solely in N. spumigena, and two anabaenopeptins (AP827 and AP883a) characteristic of two different chemotypes of this species. From the same sediment samples, DNA was isolated and the gene involved in biosynthesis of nodularin, as well as the phycocyanin intergenic spacer region (PC-IGS), were amplified. The results of chemical and genetic analyses proved for the first time the thousands-year presence of toxic N. spumigena in the Baltic Sea. They also indicated that through all this time, the same two sub-populations of the species co-existed.

Keywords: Baltic Sea; anabaenopeptins; cyanobacteria; molecular markers; nodularin; toxin.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The founding sponsors had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript; and in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Nodularin (NOD) content (A) and relative amounts of anabaenopeptin AP827 (B) and AP883a (C) (peak area/g) in the long sediment core (LC) collected in the Gulf of Gdańsk, Southern Baltic.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Nodularin (NOD) content (A) and relative amounts of anabaenopeptin AP827 (B) and A883a (C) [peak area/g] in the short sediment core (SC) collected in the Gulf of Gdańsk, Southern Baltic.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Maximum-likelihood (ML) phylogenetic tree based on the cpcBA-IGS sequences (496 bp) obtained from DNA isolated from Baltic sediments (marked in blue) and references cpcBA-IGS sequences (retrieved from NCBI) from N. spumigena strains (marked in black). Phylogenetic relationships were bootstrapped 1000 times. The branches with less than 50% bootstrap are shown as unresolved. Similar cpcBA-IGS sequences are marked as GT_A and GT_B, respectively (GT–genotype).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Bianchi T.S., Westman P., Andrén T., Rolff C., Elmgren R. Cyanobacterial blooms in the Baltic Sea: Natural or human-induced? Limnol. Oceanogr. 2000;45:716–726. doi: 10.4319/lo.2000.45.3.0716. - DOI
    1. Voss M., Kowalewska G., Brenner W. Microfossil and biogeochemical indicators of environmental changes in the Gotland Deep during the last 10.000 years. Baltica. 2001;14:131–140.
    1. Funkey C.P., Conley D.J., Reuss N.S., Humborg C., Jilbert T., Slomp C.P. Hypoxia sustains cyanobacteria blooms in the Baltic Sea. Environ. Sci. Technol. 2014;48:2598–2602. doi: 10.1021/es404395a. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Briggs D.E.G., Summons R.E. Ancient biomolecules: Their origins, fossilization, and role in revealing the history of life. Bioessa. 2014;36:482–490. doi: 10.1002/bies.201400010. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Finni T., Kononen K., Olsonen R., Wallström K. The history of cyanobacterial blooms in the Baltic Sea. Ambio. 2001;30:172–1788. doi: 10.1579/0044-7447-30.4.172. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources