Three-dimensional (3-D) fluorescence spectroscopy analysis of the fluorescent dissolved organic matter released by the marine toxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium catenella exposed to metal stress by zinc or lead

Metal stresses modify soluble proteomes and toxin profiles in two Mediterranean strains of the distributed dinoflagellate Alexandrium pacificum

HABs involving Alexandrium pacificum have been reported in metal-contaminated ecosystems, suggesting that this distributed species adapts to and/or can tolerate the effects of metals. Modifications in soluble proteomes and PST contents were characterized in two Mediterranean A. pacificum strains exposed to mono- or polymetallic stresses (zinc, lead, copper, cadmium). These strains were isolated from two anthropized locations: Santa Giusta Lagoon (Italy, SG C10-3) and the Tarragona seaport (Spain, TAR C5-4F). In both strains, metals primarily downregulated key photosynthesis proteins. Metals also upregulated other proteins involved in photosynthesis (PCP in both strains), the oxidative stress response (HSP 60, proteasome and SOD in SG C10-3; HSP 70 in TAR C5-4F), energy metabolism (AdK in TAR C5-4F), neoglucogenesis/glycolysis (GAPDH and PEP synthase in SG C10-3) and protein modification (PP in TAR C5-4F). These proteins, possibly involved in adaptive proteomic responses, may explain the development of these A. pacificum strains in metal-contaminated ecosystems. The two strains showed different proteomic responses to metals, with SG C10-3 upregulating more proteins, particularly PCP. Among the PSTs, regardless of the metal and the strain studied, C2 and GTX4 predominated, followed by GTX5. Under the polymetallic cocktail, (i) total PSTs, C2 and GTX4 reached the highest levels in SG C10-3 only, and (ii) total PSTs, C2, GTX5 and neoSTX were higher in SG C10-3 than in TAR C5-4F, whereas in SG C10-3 under copper stress, total PSTs, GTX5, GTX1 and C1 were higher than in the controls, revealing variability in PST biosynthesis between the two strains. Total PSTs, C2, GTX4 and GTX1 showed significant positive correlations with PCP, indicating that PST production may be positively related to photosynthesis. Our results showed that the A. pacificum strains adapt their proteomic and physiological responses to metals, which may contribute to their ecological success in highly anthropized areas.

Sediment archives reveal irreversible shifts in plankton communities after World War II and agricultural pollution

To evaluate the stability and resilience¹ of coastal ecosystem communities to perturbations that occurred during the Anthropocene,² pre-industrial biodiversity baselines inferred from paleoarchives are needed.^3,4 The study of ancient DNA (aDNA) from sediments (sedaDNA)⁵ has provided valuable information about past dynamics of microbial species^6-8 and communities^9-18 in relation to ecosystem variations. Shifts in planktonic protist communities might significantly affect marine ecosystems through cascading effects,^19-21 and therefore the analysis of this compartment is essential for the assessment of ecosystem variations. Here, sediment cores collected from different sites of the Bay of Brest (northeast Atlantic, France) allowed ca. 1,400 years of retrospective analyses of the effects of human pollution on marine protists. Comparison of sedaDNA extractions and metabarcoding analyses with different barcode regions (V4 and V7 18S rDNA) revealed that protist assemblages in ancient sediments are mainly composed of species known to produce resting stages. Heavy-metal pollution traces in sediments were ascribed to the World War II period and coincided with community shifts within dinoflagellates and stramenopiles. After the war and especially from the 1980s to 1990s, protist genera shifts followed chronic contaminations of agricultural origin. Community composition reconstruction over time showed that there was no recovery to a Middle Ages baseline composition. This demonstrates the irreversibility of the observed shifts after the cumulative effect of war and agricultural pollutions. Developing a paleoecological approach, this study highlights how human contaminations irreversibly affect marine microbial compartments, which contributes to the debate on coastal ecosystem preservation and restoration.

Intraspecific variability in membrane proteome, cell growth, and morphometry of the invasive marine neurotoxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium pacificum grown in metal-contaminated conditions

Over the past decades, the occurrence, distribution and intensity of harmful algal blooms involving the dinoflagellate Alexandrium pacificum have increased in marine coastal areas disturbed by anthropogenic inputs. This invasive species produces saxitoxin, which causes the paralytic shellfish poisoning syndrome in humans upon consumption of contaminated seafood. Blooms of A. pacificum have been reported in metal-contaminated coastal ecosystems, suggesting some ability of these microorganisms to adapt to and/or resist in metal stress conditions. This study seeks to characterize the modifications in membrane proteomes (by 2-D electrophoresis coupled to LC-MS/MS), cell growth and morphometry (measured with an inverted microscope), in response to metal stress (addition of Zn²⁺, Pb²⁺, Cu²⁺ and Cd²⁺), in two Mediterranean A. pacificum strains: SG C10-3 and TAR C5-4F, respectively isolated from the Santa Giusta Lagoon (Sardinia, Italy) and from the Tarragona seaport (Spain), both metal-contaminated ecosystems. In the SG C10-3 cultures grown in a metal cocktail, cell growth was significantly delayed, and cell size increased (22% of 37.5 μm cells after 25 days of growth). Conversely, no substantial change was observed for cell growth or cell size in the TAR C5-4F cultures grown in a metal cocktail (P > 0.10), thus indicating intraspecific variability in the responses of A. pacificum strains to metal contamination. Regardless of the conditions tested, the total number of proteins constituting the membrane proteome was significantly higher for TAR C5-4F than for SG C10-3, which may help TAR C5-4F to thrive better in contaminated conditions. For both strains, the total number of proteins constituting the membrane proteomes was significantly lower in response to metal stress (29% decrease in the SG C10-3 proteome: 82 ± 12 proteins for controls, and 58 ± 12 in metal-contaminated cultures; 17% decrease in the TAR C5-4F proteome: 101 ± 8 proteins for controls, and 84 ± 5 in metal-contaminated cultures). Moreover, regardless of the strain, proteins with significantly modified expression in response to stress were mainly down-regulated (representing 45% of the proteome for SG C10-3 and 38% for TAR C5-4F), clearly showing the harmful effects of the metals. Protein down-regulation may affect cell transport (actin and phospholipid scramblase in SG C10-3), photosynthesis (RUBISCO in SG C10-3, light-harvesting protein in TAR C5-4F, and high-CO₂-inducing periplasmic protein in both strains), and finally energy metabolism (ATP synthase in both strains). However, other modifications in protein expression may confer to these A. pacificum strains a capacity for adaptation and/or resistance to metal stress conditions, for example by (i) limiting the metal entry through the plasma membrane of the SG C10-3 cells (via the down-regulation of scramblase) and/or (ii) reducing the oxidative stress generated by metals in SG C10-3 and TAR C5-4F cells (due to down-regulation of ATP-synthase).

Exposure of engineered nanoparticles to Alexandrium tamarense (Dinophyceae): Healthy impacts of nanoparticles via toxin-producing dinoflagellate

Human activities can enhance the frequency, intensity and occurrence of harmful algal blooms (HABs). Engineered nanoparticles (ENPs), contained in many materials, will inevitably enter coastal waters and thus cause unpredictable impacts on aquatic organisms. However, knowledge of the influence of ENPs on HAB species is still lacking. In this study, we examined the effects of titanium dioxide nanoparticles (_nTiO₂), zinc oxide nanoparticles (_nZnO) and aluminum oxide nanoparticles (_nAl₂O₃) on physiological changes and paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins (PSTs) production of Alexandrium tamarense. We found a dose-dependent decrease in photosynthetic activity of A. tamarense under all three ENPs and a significant growth inhibition induced by _nZnO. The largest reactive oxygen species (ROS) production was induced by _nTiO₂, followed by _nZnO and _nAl₂O₃. Moreover, the PSTs production rate increased by 3.9-fold for _nTiO₂ (p<0.01) and 4.5-fold for _nAl₂O₃ (p<0.01) at a concentration of 200mgL^-1. The major component, C2 was transformed to its epimer C1 and the proportion of decarbamoyl toxins increased under 200mgL^-1 of _nZnO and _nAl₂O₃. In addition, the proportion of carbamate toxins increased upon exposure to 2mgL^-1 ENPs, while decreased upon exposure to 200mgL^-1 ENPs. The changes in PSTs production and composition might be an adaptive response for A. tamarense to overcome the stress of ENPs exposure. This work brings the first evidence that ENP would affect PSTs production and profiles.

Modifications of the soluble proteome of a mediterranean strain of the invasive neurotoxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium catenella under metal stress conditions

The soluble proteome of the mediterranean strain ACT03 of the invasive neurotoxic dinoflagellate Alexandrium catenella exposed to lead or zinc at 6, 12 or 18μM (total concentrations), or under control conditions, was characterized by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE). Zinc reduced (P<0.05) the total number of protein spots (-41%, -52% and -60%, at 6, 12 or 18μM, respectively). Besides, most of the proteins constituting the soluble proteome were down-regulated in response to lead or zinc stresses. These proteins were involved mainly in photosynthesis (20-37% for lead; 36-50% for zinc) (ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase: RUBISCO; ferredoxin-NADP⁺ reductase: FNR; peridinin-chlorophyll a-protein: PCP), and in the oxidative stress response (29-34% for lead; 17-36% for zinc) (superoxide dismutase: SOD; proteasome α/β subunits). These negative effects could be partly compensated by the up-regulation of specific proteins such as ATP-synthase β subunit (+16.3 fold after exposure to lead at 12μM). Indeed, an increase in the abundance of ATP-synthase could enrich the ATP pool and provide more energy available for the cells to survive under metal stress, and make the ATP-synthase transport of metal cations out of the cells more efficient. Finally, this study shows that exposure to lead or zinc have a harmful effect on the soluble proteome of A. catenella ACT03, but also suggests the existence of an adaptative proteomic response to metal stresses, which could contribute to maintaining the development of this dinoflagellate in trace metal-contaminated ecosystems.

Species-dependent variation in sensitivity of Microcystis species to copper sulfate: implication in algal toxicity of copper and controls of blooms

Copper sulfate is a frequently used reagent for Microcystis blooms control but almost all the previous works have used Microcystis aeruginosa as the target organism to determine dosages. The aim of this study was to evaluate interspecific differences in the responses of various Microcystis species to varying Cu²⁺ concentrations (0, 0.05, 0.10, 0.25, and 0.50 mg L⁻¹). The half maximal effective concentration values for M. aeruginosa, M. wesenbergii, M. flos-aquae, and M. viridis were 0.16, 0.09, 0.49, and 0.45 mg L⁻¹ Cu²⁺, respectively. This showed a species-dependent variation in the sensitivity of Microcystis species to copper sulfate. Malonaldehyde content did not decrease with increasing superoxide dismutase content induced by increasing Cu²⁺, suggesting that superoxide dismutase failed to reduce Cu²⁺ damage in Microcystis. Considering the risk of microcystin release when Microcystis membranes are destroyed as a result of Cu²⁺ treatment and the stimulation effects of a low level of Cu²⁺ on growth in various species, our results suggest that copper sulfate treatment for Microcystis control could be applied before midsummer when M. aeruginosa and M. viridis are not the dominant species and actual amount of Cu²⁺ used to control M. wesenbergii should be much greater than 0.10 mg L⁻¹.

Heavy-metal pollution alters dissolved organic matter released by bloom-forming Microcystis aeruginosa

The risk of heavy metals to aquatic ecosystems was paid much attention in recent years, however, the knowledge on effects of heavy metals on dissolved organic matter (DOM) released byMicrocystiswas quite poor, especially in eutrophic lakes.

A Comparative Study of the Application of Fluorescence Excitation-Emission Matrices Combined with Parallel Factor Analysis and Nonnegative Matrix Factorization in the Analysis of Zn Complexation by Humic Acids

The main aim of this study was the application of excitation-emission fluorescence matrices (EEMs) combined with two decomposition methods: parallel factor analysis (PARAFAC) and nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) to study the interaction mechanisms between humic acids (HAs) and Zn(II) over a wide concentration range (0–50 mg·dm⁻³). The influence of HA properties on Zn(II) complexation was also investigated. Stability constants, quenching degree and complexation capacity were estimated for binding sites found in raw EEM, EEM-PARAFAC and EEM-NMF data using mathematical models. A combination of EEM fluorescence analysis with one of the proposed decomposition methods enabled separation of overlapping binding sites and yielded more accurate calculations of the binding parameters. PARAFAC and NMF processing allowed finding binding sites invisible in a few raw EEM datasets as well as finding totally new maxima attributed to structures of the lowest humification. Decomposed data showed an increase in Zn complexation with an increase in humification, aromaticity and molecular weight of HAs. EEM-PARAFAC analysis also revealed that the most stable compounds were formed by structures containing the highest amounts of nitrogen. The content of oxygen-functional groups did not influence the binding parameters, mainly due to fact of higher competition of metal cation with protons. EEM spectra coupled with NMF and especially PARAFAC processing gave more adequate assessments of interactions as compared to raw EEM data and should be especially recommended for modeling of complexation processes where the fluorescence intensities (FI) changes are weak or where the processes are interfered with by the presence of other fluorophores.