Abstract
Microcystis is a well-known toxic cyanobacterium in eutrophic environments, and an increasing number of Microcystis blooms have emerged in salty reservoirs and coastal rivers. This study observed that many Microcystis were identified in a coastal river in June 2020. The relative abundance of Microcystis decreased from 81.2 to 10.2% in the sampling sites from a salinity of 0 (Sal. 0) to a salinity of 12 (Sal. 12). Hepatotoxic microcystins (MCs) were identified in the coastal river and its estuary. Of the samples, those with a salinity of 5 (Sal. 5) had the highest concentration of MCs at 7.81 ± 0.67 μg L−1. In a saline water simulation experiment, the results showed that salt inhibited Microcystis (M.) aeruginosa growth, enhanced the activity levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) and stimulated microcystin production. Transcription analysis showed that the expression levels of the psaB and rbcL genes controlling photosymbiotic processes were downregulated, and capD and csaBgene-related polysaccharide productions were upregulated by salt incubation. Notably, metabolism analysis showed that the total polysaccharides, proteins and small molecular matter, such as sucrose, methionine and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, in the Microcystis cells increased substantially to resist the extracellular hyperosmotic pressure caused by the high salinity levels in culture. These findings indicate that increased salt in a natural aquatic body shifts the phytoplankton community by influencing the physiological metabolism of cyanobacteria and poses a high risk of microcystin exposure during cyanobacterial blooms in coastal rivers.
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Data availability
The datasets used during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. Original sequences of the bacterial community associated with Microcystis in the NCBI database: SRA accession: PRJNA508584, Temporary Submission-ID: SUB4880834.
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Funding
This work was supported by the Science and Technology Plan of Yantai City (2018ZHGY080 and 2018ZHGY083), the Key Project of Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (ZR2020KE048) and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDA23050203).
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Wenjing Wang: conceptualisation, methodology, and writing—original draft preparation. Yanqing Sheng: writing—reviewing and editing. Ming Jiang: investigation and software.
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Wang, ., Sheng, Y. & Jiang, M. Physiological and metabolic responses of Microcystis aeruginosa to a salinity gradient. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 13226–13237 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16590-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16590-8