• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.11 no.11
• /
• pp.1157-1163
• /
• 2002

The effective removal of microcystins by chlorination was investigated on a laboratory scale. With an initial chl.a concentration of more than 1,000 $\mu\textrm{g}$/ℓ, the required chlorine dose for the effective removal of microcystins from the raw water was more than 8.0 mg/ℓ. Whereas, a chlorine dose of 3.0 mg/ℓcould effectively remove microcystins from raw water containing a chl.a concentration of less than 1,000 $\mu\textrm{g}$/ℓ. The microcystin removal was more effective below pH 8.0, plus the optimum pH range was unrelated to the concentration of toxic algal material. Although chlorination is one of the most effective methods for reducing the toxin from blue-green algae, it causes cell lysis and toxin release. However, it was demonstrated that the released cell lysates and toxins could be effectively removed by a higher dose of the oxidant. The highest removal efficiency of dissolved microcystins(initial concentration: 280 $\mu\textrm{g}$ L$\^$-1/) was with a chlorine dose of 5.0 mg/ℓ.

• KSBB Journal
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.155-164
• /
• 2014

Succinic acid, a representative biomass-derived platform chemical, is a major fermentation product of Actinobacillus succinogenes. It is well known that carbon dioxide is consumed during the succinate fermentation, but the biochemical mechanism behind this phenomenon is not yet understood well. In this study, it was found that the addition of carbonic anhydrase (CA)s into media significantly enhances the succinic acid production by A. succinogenes during the fermentation supplied with carbon dioxide. It is likely that the (bi) carbonate produced by the CA activity from gaseous carbon dioxide is favoured by A. succinogenes for consumption and utilization. Therefore, the $MgCO_3$ requirement could be significantly reduced without compromising the succinate productivity. Furthermore, because of too high price of the commercial carbonic anhydrase, it was undertaken to economically overproduce a cyanobacterial carbonic anhydrase by the use of a recombinant Pichia pastoris. An expression vector system was constructed with the carbonic anhydrase gene PCR-cloned from Cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp., and introduced into P. pastoris for fermentation studies. About 95.9 g/L of succinic acid was produced in the production medium with 30 ppm of carbonic anhydrase, approximately 2 fold higher productivity compared to the parallel process with no supplementation of the enzyme. It is expected that this method can provide a valuable way of overcoming inefficiencies inherent in gas supply during $CO_2$-based bioprocesses like succinic acid fermentation.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.38 no.3 s.113
• /
• pp.420-428
• /
• 2005

Effects of three biological control agents such as Xanthobacter autotrophycus, Tanichthys albonubes and Oryzias latipes on the morphology and growth of cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa were studied. The experiments were consisted of six treatments of living organism (LO) and culture filtered water of three organisms (CFW). Three LOs effectively decreased the density of M. aeruginosa, and then cyanobacteria hardy showed in the microscopic field after 5 days of cultivation. All LO and CFW agents induced the colonial formation of cyanobacterium M. aeruginosa, although there were little differences in colony formation according to the kinds, density and type of treatment. In particular, the higher density treatment of fish CFW induced effectively the colony formation of cyanobacteria, compared to the bacterial LO and CFW. Thus, the application of bio agents to control the cyanobacterial bloom is needed to the further study to diminish the adverse effects such as the enhancement of colony formation towards on the new bloom against the aquatic ecosystem.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.47 no.4
• /
• pp.292-301
• /
• 2014

Akinete germination may be a starting point of some akinete-producing cyanobacterial blooms in eutrophic freshwater systems. This study examined germinability of akinete of a cyanobacterium Anabaena circinalis isolated from the sediment of the North Han River (Cheongpyung Dam), Korea, under several environmental factors such as temperature ($5{\sim}25^{\circ}C$), light ($0{\sim}100{\mu}mol\;photons\;m^{-2}\;s^{-1}$), nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) and pH (5~12). The high germination rate appeared at high temperature: >55% at $25^{\circ}C$, followed by 15% at $15^{\circ}C$, $10^{\circ}C$ and 10% at $5^{\circ}C$. Low light intensity was favorable for akinete germination. Over 45% of germination occurred at low light intensities (5, 15 and $30{\mu}mol\;photons\;m^{-2}\;s^{-1}$), while less than 10% of germination occurred at both 50 and $100{\mu}mol\;photons\;m^{-2}\;s^{-1}$. No germination occurred in the dark condition. Akinete germination rate increased with nutrient (phosphorus and nitrogen) enrichment, and nitrogen addition showed greater effect on the germination compared to phosphorus addition. Akinetes germinated well at neutral or slightly alkaline pH condition (pH 7 and pH 8: >55%), but no germination was observed at pH 11~12. The present study demonstrates some favorable ambient conditions of Anabaena circinalis germination, which could provide useful information to study the germination conditions of other Anabaena species or akinete-forming algae and predict its bloom in eutrophic freshwaters.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.34 no.4 s.96
• /
• pp.319-326
• /
• 2001

The biological and physicochemical factors and geosmin concentration were monitored in the Daechung Reservoir for 25 weeks from April to October in 1999. Geosmin was detected 5 times within a range of $1.16{\sim}5.28\;ng\;L^{-1}$, mostly in the late summer. The highest geosmin concentration was recorded on August 31, which also overlapped with the peaks of phycocyanin concentration, cyanobacterial density, and Anabaena spiroides density. A correlation analysis indicated that geosmin production was closely related with a high water temperature, pH, total dissolved phosphorus (TDP), and A. spiroides density. A water temperature of $27^{\circ}^C$, pH of 8.5, and TDP of $0.06\;mg\;L^{-1}$ were identified as the prerequisite environmental condition sand threshold values for geosmin production. Accordingly, under such conditions, an A. spiroides density above $10,000\;cells\;mL^{-1}$ indicates imminent geosmin occurrence.

• Toxicological Research
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.375-380
• /
• 2006

Microcystin-LR (MC-LR) is a cyanobacterial hepatotoxin mainly produced by Microcystis aeruginosa. The current study examined the effects of a single intraperitoneal dose of MC-LR in rats. Female Sprague-Dawley rats were intraperitoneally injected with MC-LR ($100{\mu}g/kg$ body weight) and they were sacrificed at 0, 20, 40, 80, 160 min, or 12 h after injection. Clinically, animals showed lethargy and had ruffled hair beginning at 40 min post injection. In the gross findings, liver was enlarged and its color was changed into dark red beginning at 40 min post injection. Microscopically, dissociation of centrilobular hepatocytes and hemorrhage was observed in the hepatic central legions and such pathological changes were then extended to the portal regions of liver by time course manner. Interestingly at 80 min after MC-LR injection, the entrapped eosinophilic materials that may be necrotic fragments of dissociated hepatocytes were found in the capillaries of lung and renal glomerulus. Ultrastructurally, microvilli of the hepatocytes were disrupted or lost at all time points. Furthermore, the Disse space and gap junctions were widened beginning at 40 min post injection. These results suggest that liver is the major target organ of MC-LR and isolated hepatocytes by the effects of such hepatotoxin may secondarily reduce the physiological function of lung and kidney.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.38 no.2 s.112
• /
• pp.261-270
• /
• 2005

Biological control agents (BCA; algicidal bacterium Xantobacter autotrophycus) plus casitone media, strongly changed physicochemical variables, standing crops of phytoplankton and microcystin-LR phytoplankton in 100-L mesocosm constructed in a small hexagonal pond (3.5 m ${\times}$ 5 m). No M. aeruginosa showed by 8 days, and 60% of total standing crops of phytoplanktons were decreased by the BCA treatment. BCA treatment also induced a strong decline of cellular extracted microcystin-LR (MCLR) and a remarkable increase of dissolved MCLR with the decrement in standing crops of cyanobacteria. In addition, BCA strongly increased all nutrients, but new outbreak of phytoplanktons hardly showed in the experimental mesocosm. The field application of BCA to controling the cyanobacterial bloom in large lakes and reservoirs is not relevant due to high concentration of nutrients and toxins. Thus, a further study is needed to diminish the adverse effects after BCA treatment for water quality preservation.

• Journal of environmental and Sanitary engineering
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.40-48
• /
• 2009

Unusual bloom of toxic cyanobacteria in water bodies have drawn attention of environmentalists world over. Major bloom of Anabaena, Microcystis in water storage reservoir, rivers and lake leading to adverse health effects have been reported from Australia, England and many part of the world. These cyanobacterial cells can release intercellular matter like toxin in water and these intercellular matter can increase the concentration of organic matter. Cellysis can occur when algal cells meet the disinfectants like chlorine in water treatment plant and the resultant rising up of DOC(Dissolved Organic Carbon) or TOC(Total Organic Carbon) can increase the formation of disinfection by products. Disinfectants that kill microorganisms react with the organic or inorganic matter in raw water. In general disinfectants oxidize the matter in raw water and the resultant products can be harmful to human. There are always conflict about which is more important, disinfection or minimizing disinfection by products. The best treatment process for raw water is the process of the lowest disinfection by products and also the the lowest microorganism. In this study the cultured cells, Microcytis Aeruginosa(MA), Anabaena Flos-aquae(AF), Anabaena Cylindrica(AC), and the cells obtained in Daechung Dam(DC) whose dominant species was Anabaena Cylindrica were subjected to chlorination. Chlorination oxidizes inorganic and organic compounds and destruct live cells in raw water. Chloroform was analyzed for the cultured cells which were treated with $20mg/\ell$ dose of chlorine. In general chloroform is easily formed when dissolved organic matter react with chlorine. The cultured cells contributes the concentration of dissolved organic carbon and also that of total organic carbon which might be potent precusors of chloroform formed. The correlations of the concentration of chloroform, DOC and TOC were investigate in this study.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Biology
• /
• v.38 no.3
• /
• pp.424-432
• /
• 2020

The present study aimed to analyze the metaproteome of the microbial community comprising harmful algal bloom (HAB) in the Daechung reservoir, Korea. HAB samples located at GPS coordinates of 36°29'N latitude and 127°28'E longitude were harvested in October 2013. Microscopic observation of the HAB samples revealed red signals that were presumably caused by the autofluorescence of chlorophyll and phycocyanin in viable cyanobacteria. Metaproteomic analysis was performed by a gelbased shotgun proteomic method. Protein identification was conducted through a two-step analysis including a forward search strategy (FSS) (random search with the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), Cyanobase, and Phytozome), and a subsequent reverse search strategy (RSS) (additional Cyanobase search with a decoy database). The total number of proteins identified by the two-step analysis (FSS and RSS) was 1.8-fold higher than that by one-step analysis (FSS only). A total of 194 proteins were assigned to 12 cyanobacterial species (99 mol%) and one green algae species (1 mol%). Among the species identified, the toxic microcystin-producing Microcystis aeruginosa NIES-843 (62.3%) species was the most dominant. The largest functional category was proteins belonging to the energy category (39%), followed by metabolism (15%), and translation (12%). This study will be a good reference for monitoring ecological variations at the meta-protein level of aquatic microalgae for understanding HAB.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
• /
• v.46 no.2
• /
• pp.162-168
• /
• 2010

The sequence diversity of mcyA gene involved in synthesis of microcystins was analyzed in Microcystis spp. isolated from the Korean reservoirs and in the environmental samples taken from the Daechung, Chungju, Yongdam, Soyang, and Euam Reservoirs at the cyanobacterial blooming season. It was estimated that the sequences of mcyA gene in the isolated Microcystis spp. were much conserved when compared with those in GenBank database. A few kinds of clones were dominant in the investigated environmental samples, occupying 87 to 100% of total clones. No mcyA sequences originated from Anabaena spp. or Planktothrix spp. was found. These results indicated that microcystins are produced mainly by Microcystis spp. and the sequences of mcyA genes are much conserved in the investigated Korean reservoirs.