• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.451-464
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• 2023

Harmful cyanobacterial monitoring is time-consuming and requires skilled professionals. Recently, Phycocyanin, the accessory pigment unique to freshwater cyanobacteria, has been proposed as an indicator for the presence of cyanobacteria, with the advantage of rapid and simple measurement. The purpose of this research was to evaluate the correlation between the harmful cyanobacterial cell density and the concentration of phycocyanin and to consider how to use the real-time water quality monitoring system for algae bloom monitoring. In the downstream of the Nakdong River, Microcystis spp. showed maximum cell density (99 %) in harmful cyanobacteria (four target genera). A strong correlation between phycocyanin(measured in the laboratory) concentrations and harmful cyanobacterial cell density was observed (r = 0.90, p < 0.001), while a weaker relationship (r = 0.65, p < 0.001) resulted between chlorophyll a concentration and harmful cyanobacterial cell density. As a result of comparing the phycocyanin concentration (measured in submersible fluorescence sensor) and harmful cyanobacterial cell density, the error range increased as the number of cyanobacteria cells increased. Before opening the estuary bank, the diurnal variations of phycocyanin concentrations did not mix by depth, and in the case of the surface layer, a pattern of increase and decrease over time was shown. This study is the result of analysis when Microcystis spp. is dominant in downstream of Nakdong River in summer, therefore the correlation between the harmful cyanobacteria density and phycocyanin concentrations should be more generalized through spatio-temporal expansion.

• Journal of Plant Biology
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 1992

The characteristic of Cyanophyte genus SG63 is similar to that of Aphanot hece sp. The optimal growth was found with the concentration of NaCI and $MgSO_4{\cdot}7H_2O$ on the culture medium. The most optimal condition is 56%0 of NaCl (S4 medium) and 20%0 of $MgSO_4{\cdot}7H_2O$ (M2 medium). The synthesis of chlorophyll a, phycocyanin and soluble proteins is affected by the concentration of the two mineral elements in culture. Especially, the content of chlorophyll a and phycocyanin decreases on the most highly saline medium. The identified principal carotenoids are ${\beta}-carotene$, echinenone, zeaxanthin and myxoxanthophyll. The rates of concentration of protein/chlorophyll a and phycocyanin/chlorophyll a are low on the S4 medium. Inversely, these rates are the highest on the M2 medium. Accordingly, the high concentration of $MgSO_4{\cdot}7H_2O$ provoke the synthesis of phycocyanin and total proteins.oteins.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.39 no.4 s.118
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• pp.445-449
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• 2006

Phenolic compounds are manufacturing by-products commonly found in industrial wastewater. The toxicity of high level phenolic compounds in wastewater threatens not only the aquatic organisms, but also many components of the adjacent ecosystem. One of the major light harvesting pigments in cyanobacteria is phycocyanin which can be rapidly and specifically degraded by external stimuli such as nutritional depletion or environmental stress. We employed the cyanobacterium Anabaena sp. PCC 7120 as an indicator organism in estimating the pollution level by phenolic compounds. The phycocyanin content of the cyanobacterium decreased without significantly altering the total chlorophyll as the phenol concentration in a medium increased. We examined the phenol contamination level using the correlation of the phycocyanin content and the phenol concentration. Our results indicated that no significant pollution by phenolic compounds was found in several waterbodies in the vicinity of Daegu, South Korea.

• Journal of Microbiology
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.98-104
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• 2007

Chlorophyll ${\alpha}$ concentration and cyanobacterial cell density are regularly employed as dual criteria for determinations of the alert level for cyanobacterial bloom. However, chlorophyll ${\alpha}$ is not confined only to the cyanobacteria, but is found universally in eukaryotic algae. Furthermore, the determination of cyanobacterial cell counts is notoriously difficult, and is unduly dependent on individual variation and trained skill. A cyanobacteria-specific parameter other than the cell count or chlorophyll ${\alpha}$ concentration is, accordingly, required in order to improve the present cyanobacterial bloom alert system. Phycocyanin has been shown to exhibit a strong correlation with a variety of bloom-related factors. This may allow for the current alert system criteria to be replaced by a three-stage alert system based on phycocyanin concentrations of 0.1, 30, and $700\;{\mu}g/L$. This would also be advantageous in that it would become far more simple to conduct measurements without the need for expensive equipment, thereby enabling the monitoring of entire lakes more precisely and frequently. Thus, an alert system with superior predictive ability based on highthroughput phycocyanin measurements appears feasible.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.290-296
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• 2004

The effects of potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, and iron on cyanobacterial bloom potentials were investigated in Daechung Reservoir, Korea. Potassium showed the highest correlation with the cyanobacterial cell number (r=0.487, P<0.05) and phycocyanin concentration (r=0.499, P<0.05). However, it was not likely that the potassium had directly affected the bloom formation, because the variations of its concentration were not significantly large. In contrast, the Fe concentration fluctuated drastically and exhibited a negative correlation with the cyanobacterial cell number (r=- 0.388, P<0.1) and phycocyanin concentration (r=-0.446, P<0.05). Accordingly, the K:Fe atomic ratio would appear to reflect the extent of cyanobacterial bloom more precisely than K or Fe alone. The K:Fe ratio specifically correlated with cyanobacterial percentage, the cyanobacterial cell number and phycocyanin concentration (r=0.840, P<0.001; r=0.416, P<0.05; r=0.522, P<0.01, respectively). With the K:Fe atomic ratio of over 200, the chlorophyll-a concentration, cyanobacterial cell number, and phycocyanin concentration exceeded $10\mu$g $1^{-1}$20,000 cells $ml^{-1}$, and 20 pM, respectively, the general criteria of eutrophic water.

• Clinical and Experimental Reproductive Medicine
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.102-111
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• 2024

Objective: Given the noteworthy implications of alcohol consumption and its association with male infertility, there has been a notable focus on investigating natural alternatives to mitigate its adverse effects. Thus, this study was conducted to assess the potential protective effect of phycocyanin extract derived from the blue algae Arthrospira (Spirulina) platensis against ethanol-induced oxidative stress, disturbances in testicular morphology, and alterations in sperm production. Methods: Male rats were divided into four groups (five rats each): the control group received a saline solution, the ethanol exposed group (EtOH) was subjected to intraperitoneal injections of 10 mL/kg of ethanol solution at a concentration of 38% (v/v), the phycocyanin alone treated group (P) received oral administration of phycocyanin at a dosage of 50 mg/kg, and the phycocyanin-cotreated group (PE) was given oral phycocyanin followed by ethanol injections. All treatments were administered over a period of 14 days. Results: Our findings demonstrated that ethanol exposure induced reproductive toxicity, characterized by reduced sperm production and viability, alterations in testicular weight and morphology, increased lipid peroxidation levels, and elevated oxidative enzyme activity. In addition, the ethanol-intoxicated group showed perturbations in serum biochemical parameters. However, the simultaneous exposure to ethanol and phycocyanin exhibited a counteractive effect against ethanol toxicity. Conclusion: The results showed that supplementation of phycocyanin prevented oxidative and testicular morphological damage-induced by ethanol and maintained normal sperm production, and viability.

• International journal of advanced smart convergence
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.73-79
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• 2016

Remote sensing and measurement are of paramount importance of providing information on the state of water quality in water bodies. The formation and growth of cyanobacteria is of serious concern to in land aquatic life forms and human life. The main cause of water quality deterioration stems from anthropogenic induced eutrophication. The goal of this research to quantify and determine the spatial distribution of cyanobacteria concentration in the water using remote sensing technique. The standard approach to measure water quality based on the direct measurement of the fluorescence of the chlorophyll a in the living algal cells and the same approach used to detect the phycobilin pigments found in blue-green algae (a.k.a. cyanobacteria), phycocyanin and phycoerythrin. This paper propose the emerging sensor design to measure the water quality based on the optical analysis by fluorescence of the phycocyanin pigment. In this research, we developed an method to sense and quantify to derive phycocyanin intensity index for estimating cyanobacteria concentrations. The development of the index was based on the reflectance difference between visible light band 620nm and 665nm. As a result of research this paper presents, an optical biological sensor design information to measure the Phycocyanin parameters in water content.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.520-527
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• 2016

Phycocyanin (PC) is one of the water-soluble accessory pigments of cyanobacteria species, and its concentration is used to estimate the presence and relative abundance of cyanobacteria. In laboratory experiments, PC content of field data were determined using Sarada's freeze-thaw method in algal bloom season. The effectiveness of three selected extraction methods (repeated freeze-thaw method, homogenization, power control) for PC were determined. The extraction efficiency of phycocyanin was the highest (of the methods compared) when a single freezing-thawing cycle was followed by pre-sonication. Applying this optimized method to surface water of Korean inland waters, the average concentration distribution was estimated at $2.9{\sim}51.9mg/m^3$. It has been shown that the optimized pre-sonication method is suitable to measure cyanobacteria PC content for the characterization of inland waters. The approach and results of this study indicates the potential of effective methods for remote monitoring and management of water quality in turbid inland waters using hyperspectral remote sensing.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.286-294
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• 2015

Temporal and spatial characteristics of cyanobacterial communities at the monitoring stations for Harmful Algal Bloom Alert System (HABAS) in Nakdong River and Lake Dukdong were investigated for two years (2013 to 2014). A total of 30 cyanobacterial species from 14 genera were found at the survey stations. Microcystis sp. showed maximum cell density in the total cyanobacterial community in August, 2014 at ND-2 and in September, 2013 at ND-3 station. Lynbya limnetica and Geitlerinema sp., non-target species for alert criteria showed maximum cell density at ND-1 (August, 2013) and Dam station of Lake Dukdong (September, 2014), respectively. Total cyanobacterial cell density and the relative abundance of four target genera (Microcystis, Anabaena, Aphanizomenon and Oscillatoria spp.) for alert criteria was relatively lower in the mesotrophic Lake Dukdong than at the eutrophic riverine stations of Nakdong River, indicating cyanobacterial density and the RA of target genera is affected by the trophic state of the monitoring stations. Simulating the alert system using phycocyanin concentration as an alert criterion resulted in the longer period of alert issued compared to the period of alert issued using the current criterion of harmful cyanobacterial cell density due to the influence of phycocyanin concentration from non-target cyanobacterial species.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.56 no.6
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• pp.373-380
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• 2023

Due to abnormal climate phenomena and climate change in Korea, overgrowth of algae in rivers and reservoirs occurs frequently. Algae in rivers are classified into green algae, blue-green algae, diatom, and other types, and some species of blue-green algae cause problems due to odor and the discharge of toxic substances. In Korea, an algae alert system is in place, and it is issued based on the number of harmful blue-green algae cells. Thus, measuring harmful blue-green algal blooms is very important, and currently, the analysis method of algae involves taking field samples and determining the cell count of green algae, blue-green algae, and diatoms through algal microscopy, which takes a lot of time. Recently, the analysis of algae concentration through Phycocyanin, an alternative indicator for the number of harmful algae cells, has been conducted through remote sensing. However, research on the analysis of the number of blue-green algae cells is currently insufficient. In this study, we water samples for algal analyses were collected from river and counted the number of blue-green algae cells using algae microscopy. We also obtained the Phycocyanin concentration using an optical sensor and acquired algae spectra through a hyperspectral sensor. Based on this, we calculated the equation for estimating blue-green algae cell counts and estimated the number of blue-green algae cells.