• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2024

Algal blooms occur seasonally in the eutrophicated rivers or reservoirs, and some harmful cyanobacteria species produce toxic substances, which are directly or indirectly harmful to the ecosystem and terrestrial animals. So, the monitoring and control of harmful cyanobacteria occurrence and toxins residual in the aquasystem are important to preserve the water environment and secure public health. In this study, the four harmful cyanobacteria occurrences and toxic substance concentrations of two agricultural reservoirs in the southern part of Gyeonggi Province were investigated from August to October 2022. Among four harmful cyanobacteria (Microcystis sp., Anabaena sp., Oscillatoria sp., Aphanizomenon sp.), three kinds of cyanobacteria except Oscillatoria sp. were observed, and Microcystis sp. was the dominant cyanobacteria except for Anabaena sp. dominant result of a sample collected on October at reservoir B. The cell density of cyanobacteria was influenced by season and weather due to the length of daytime and concentrations of organic carbon and nitrogen. Three kinds of microcystin and anatoxin-a were quantitatively analyzed as total (in the cell body and water) and extracellular (in water) concentrations. The maximum total concentrations of anatoxin-a, microcystin-LR, microcystin-RR, and microcystin-YR were 0.1291 ㎍/L, 0.2776 ㎍/L, 0.3721 ㎍/L, and 0.0306 ㎍/L, respectively, in reservoir A and 0.3274 ㎍/L, 0.1495 ㎍/L, 0.2037 ㎍/L, and 0.0153 ㎍/L, respectively, in reservoir B.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.649-655
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• 2005

Microcystis aeruginosa is common form of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) capable of producing toxic heptapeptide (microcystin) that cause illness or death. The comparison of molecular genetic method with the morphological characteristics of cyanobacteria was conducted. We have designed PCR primers (JJM98F, JJM1141R) for cyanobacterial 16S rRNA and phycocyanin intergenic spacer (PC-IGS) gene domain. To confirm the production of microcystins, PCR primers for the N-methyltransferase (NMT) domain of microcystin synthetase gene mcyA were designed using 21 cyanobacteria strains Most of isolated strains from the Nakdong River was classified as Microcystis aeruginosa and the similarities were $99\%$ with M. aeruginosa AF 139292. $38.1\%$ of isolated strains contained microcystin synthesis gene. NMT (N-methyltransferase) were not detected in isolated strain in several strains, which means non-toxic. However, the NMTs of the strains were detected during the cultivation.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.491-498
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• 2011

We investigated the ranges of total cellular microcystins content of cyanobacterial blooms collected in Korean lakes and rivers from 2005 to 2009. The amount and composition of microcystins of Korean cyanobacteria varied depending on the sampling water bodies and dominant cyanobacterial genera. Toxic cyanobacterial cell numbers equivalent to $1{\mu}g$ MCYSTs/L using total cellular microcystin content of Korean cyanobacteria were in the range of 2,348 to 66,980,638 cells/mL. Only four samples among forty nine samples showed less cell numbers than current criterion of Harmful Algae Alert System, 5,000 cells/mL indicating current criterion do not reflect properly the microcystins content of Korean cyanobacteria. Anabaena and Aphanizomenon spp. showed three to six times higher cell numbers equivalent to $1{\mu}g$ MCYSTs/L than Microcystis spp. To propose criteria of Harmful Algae Alert System for Korean toxic cyanobacteria, we calculated about 50% selective geometrical means of cyanobacterial cell numbers equivalent to $1{\mu}g$ MCYSTs/L in order of toxic content. The proposed criteria for Microcystis, Oscillatoria, Anabaena, and Aphanizomenon spp., are 10,000, 20,000, 40,000, and 80,000 cells/mL, respectively.

• ALGAE
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.303-313
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• 2012

Cyanobacteria are well known for their production of a multitude of highly toxic and / or allelopathic compounds. Among the photosynthetic microorganisms, cyanobacteria, belonging to the genus Nostoc are regarded as good candidate for producing biologically active secondary metabolites which are highly toxic to humans and other animals. Since so many reports have been published on the poisoning of different animals from drinking water contaminated with cyanobacteria toxins, it might be assumed that bioactive compounds are found only in aquatic species causes toxicity. However, the discovery of several dead dogs, mice, ducks, and fish around paddy fields, prompted us to study the toxic compounds in a strain of Nostoc which is most abundant in the paddy fields of Iran, using polymerase chain reaction and liquid chromatography coupled with a diode array detector and mass spectrophotometer. Results of molecular analysis demonstrated that the ASN_M strain contains the nosF gene. Also, the result of ion chromatograms and $MS^2$ fragmentation patterns showed that while there were three different peptidic compound classes (anabaenopeptin, cryptophycin, and nostocyclopeptides), there were no signs of the presence of anatoxin-a, homoanatoxin-a, hassallidin or microcystins. Moreover, a remarkable antifungal activity was identified in the methanolic extracts. Based on the results, this study suggests that three diverse groups of potentially bioactive compounds might account for the death of these animals. This case is the first documented incident of toxicity from aquatic cyanobacteria related intoxication in dogs, mice, and aquatic organisms in Iran.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.834-840
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• 2010

To find out the toxin production characteristics of Korean harmful cyanobacteria, we isolated 14 cyanobacterial strains from Korean lakes and rivers and analyzed the kinds and cellular content of microcystins (MCYSTs) of cyanobacterial isolates using cultured biomass. And we measured the MCYSTs production by growth phase of two representative toxic strains, Microcystis aeruginosa (HG-015) and Anabaena planktonica (HG-012). Among seven cyanobacteral species, Microcystis wesenbergii showed the highest cellular MCYSTs content. MCYST-RR was the most dominant toxin reaching more than 85% of MCYSTs produced by isolated cyanbacterial strains. During the mass culture, Microcystis aeruginosa (HG-015) showed the highest yield and accumulation of MCYSTs in the exponential growth phase. However the cellular content of chlorophyll a and MCYSTs of Anabaena planktonica (HG-012) showed higher value in the stationary and early death phase than in the exponential growth phase. Our results suggest that control and removal of harmful cyanobacterial bloom before exponential growth phase may be effective to prevent health risk of cyanobacterial toxins in the drinking water sources.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.52-56
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• 2006

The effect of bensulfuron-methyl on the nontargeted cyanobacteria was greater on A. variabillis than N. commune. Both A. variabillis and N. commune were initially able to utilize low concentrations of the herbicide, bensulfuron-methyl, whereas higher concentrations of bensulfuron-methyl or the hydrolyzed products of the herbicide were found to be toxic. Growth and photosynthesis inhibitions of over $50\%$ were observed, when 8 to 10 ppm of the herbicide was applied. Nitrogenase activities of the cyanobacteria were decreased by $94-98\%$ in A. variabillis and by $85-86\%$ in N. commune after 24 h of incubation with 10 ppm and 20 ppm of bensulfuron-methyl. Nitrogenase activities were also inhibited by the addition of ammonium salts as low as 0.05 mM. Furthermore, the toxic effect of the herbicide was the highest at pH 4-6, showing approximately $42-60\%$ toxicity, whereas much lower toxicity $(9-28\%)$ was observed at higher pH of 7-10, due to base-catalyzed hydrolysis of bensulfuron-methyl.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.49 no.9
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• pp.789-798
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• 2016

Frequent algal blooms at major river systems in Korea have been serious social and environmental problems. Especially, the appearance of cyanobacteria with toxic materials is a threat to secure a safe drinking water. In order to model the behaviour of cyanobacteria cell number, an exclusive causality analysis using prewhitening technique was introduced to delineate effective parameters to predict the cell numbers of cyanobacteria in Seungchon Weir and Juksan Weir along Youngsan river system. Both input and output transfer function models were obtained to explain temporal variation of cyanobacteria cell number. A threshold behaviour of water temperature was implemented into the model development to consider winter characteristic of cyanobacteria. The implementation of water temperature threshold into the model structure improves the predictability in simulation. Even though the input output transfer model cannot completely explained all blooms of cyanobacteria, the simple structure of model provide a feasibility in application which can be important in practical aspect.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.130-139
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• 2017

With the need to evaluate accuracy of real-time measurement of cyanobacterial fluorescence to determine cyanobacterial blooms, this research examined 357 paired data (2013-2016) comprising both microscopic toxic cyanobacterial cell counts and concurrent real-time cyanobacterial concentrations at 2 sites (YS1 and YS2) in Yeongsan river. The increase in real-time cyanobacterial concentration was closely associated with the exceedance of 5,000 cyanobacterial cells/ml (odds ratio [OR] 1.07, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.03-1.12) and 10,000 cells/ml (OR 1.08, 95% CI 1.04-1.12) at YS2 site. The area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for the real-time cyanobacterial measurement at the YS2 site was 0.93, which indicates the measurement provides a high accurate detection of cyanobacterial blooms. On the ROC curve, the early alert levels of real-time cyanobacteria ranging $16-23{\mu}g$ chl-a/L would produce acceptable sensitivity of 79% and specificities greater than 90%. The real-time fluorescence measurement was found to be an accurate indicator of cyanobacteria and can serve as a tool for detecting toxic cyanobacterial bloom events in Youngsan river.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.50-56
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• 2003

A freshwater bloom-forming cyanobacterium, Microcystis aeruginosa, and local soil isolate Scytonema sp. strain BT 23 were demonstrated to contain biotoxic secondary metabolites with pesticidal and mosquito larvicidal activities. A purified toxic constituent from M aeruginosa showed an absorption maximum at 230 nm and its toxicity symptoms, Rf value on TLC, and retention time observed ill an HPLC analysis were similar to those of the hepatotoxic heptapeptide microcystin-LR. The bioactive constituent of the Scytonema sp. was less polar in nature and exhibited two peaks at 240 and 285 m. When applied to two cruciffrous pests, Pieris brassicae and Plutella flostella, the crude extracts and toxic principles from the two cyanobacteria showed significant antifeedant activity in a no-choice bioassay, and at higher concenuations exhibited contact toxicity to the insect larvae. The purified toxin from M. aeruginosa was found to be more effective and produced 97.5 and $92.8\%$ larval mortality in the two pests, fo11owing 2 h of toxin treatment at a concentration of $25{\mu}g$ Per leaf disc (2.5 cm dia.). Meanwhile, similar treatment with the purified toxin from Sytonema sp. stain BT 23 only produced 73 and $78\%$ mortality in the two pests. The cyanobacterial constituents also showed significant activity against Culex and Anopheles larvae. The M. aeruginosa toxin ($20{\mu}g\;ml^-1$) caused 98.2 and $88.1\%$ mortality in the Culex and Anopheles larvae, respectively, while the purified toxin from the Sytonema sp. was less toxic and only produced a 96.3 and $91.2\%$ mortality, respectively, at a much higher concentration ($40{\mu}g\;ml^-1$). Accordingly, the current results point to certain hitherto unknown biological properties of cyanobacterial biotoxins.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.800-804
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• 2007

Cyanobacterial toxins, microcystins are very potent hepatotoxins and their occurrence has been reported all over the world. They could threaten human health when toxic Microcystis occurs in water supply reservoirs. In this study, the effects of several environmental factors on production and degradation of toxins produced by cyanobacteria in Lake Soyang have been studied. A new rapid quantification method of microcystins using fluorescence for a detection signal and a lateral-flow-type immunochromatography as a separation system was used. Culture age, temperature, light intensity, pH, N-nutrient concentration, P-nutrient concentration, iron and zinc concentration were the most importantly examined factors. The toxin content was the highest on 17-18 days and at temperatures between 20℃ and 25℃, and at pH between 8.4 and 8.8.