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Hofbauer WK. Toxic or Otherwise Harmful Algae and the Built Environment. Toxins (Basel) 2021; 13:465. [PMID: 34209446 PMCID: PMC8310063 DOI: 10.3390/toxins13070465] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2021] [Revised: 06/27/2021] [Accepted: 06/28/2021] [Indexed: 12/30/2022] Open
Abstract
This article gives a comprehensive overview on potentially harmful algae occurring in the built environment. Man-made structures provide diverse habitats where algae can grow, mainly aerophytic in nature. Literature reveals that algae that is potentially harmful to humans do occur in the anthropogenic environment in the air, on surfaces or in water bodies. Algae may negatively affect humans in different ways: they may be toxic, allergenic and pathogenic to humans or attack human structures. Toxin-producing alga are represented in the built environment mainly by blue green algae (Cyanoprokaryota). In special occasions, other toxic algae may also be involved. Green algae (Chlorophyta) found airborne or growing on manmade surfaces may be allergenic whereas Cyanoprokaryota and other forms may not only be toxic but also allergenic. Pathogenicity is found only in a special group of algae, especially in the genus Prototheca. In addition, rare cases with infections due to algae with green chloroplasts are reported. Algal action may be involved in the biodeterioration of buildings and works of art, which is still discussed controversially. Whereas in many cases the disfigurement of surfaces and even the corrosion of materials is encountered, in other cases a protective effect on the materials is reported. A comprehensive list of 79 taxa of potentially harmful, airborne algae supplemented with their counterparts occurring in the built environment, is given. Due to global climate change, it is not unlikely that the built environment will suffer from more and higher amounts of harmful algal species in the future. Therefore, intensified research in composition, ecophysiology and development of algal growth in the built environment is indicated.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wolfgang Karl Hofbauer
- Umwelt, Hygiene und Sensorik, Fraunhofer-Institut für Bauphysik, 83626 Valley, Bavaria, Germany
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Oliveira RD, Wolking RM, Bradway DS, Alexander TL, Burbick CR, Cerchiaro I, Eckstrand CD. Algal Lymphadenitis in a Dog Caused by Scenedesmus Species. Vet Pathol 2020; 57:821-824. [PMID: 32783503 DOI: 10.1177/0300985820948819] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
A 6-year-old, spayed female Labrador/Weimaraner cross-breed dog that had previously lived in Arizona presented in Montana for an annual examination with an incidentally enlarged popliteal lymph node, which was subsequently biopsied. Histologically, the lymph node was expanded by eosinophil-rich granulomas with both extracellular and intrahistiocytic green algae. These algae had intracytoplasmic, birefringent, and refractile granules; readily formed 2 to 3 mm green colonies on Columbia blood agar medium; and ultrastructurally had a multilayered cell wall and intracytoplasmic chloroplasts. Amplified product from the internal transcribed spacer and D1/D2 regions of the 28S ribosomal RNA gene had high sequence identity to Scenedesmus sp. Despite similar infection in the retropharyngeal lymph node 1 year later, the animal remained otherwise healthy with no clinical signs. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first case of Scenedesmus species infection in a dog and is a differential diagnosis for Coccidioides immitis.
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Bass D, Del Campo J. Microeukaryotes in animal and plant microbiomes: Ecologies of disease? Eur J Protistol 2020; 76:125719. [PMID: 32736314 DOI: 10.1016/j.ejop.2020.125719] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2020] [Revised: 04/28/2020] [Accepted: 05/25/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
Studies of animal and plant microbiomes are burgeoning, but the majority of these focus on bacteria and rarely include microeukaryotes other than fungi. However, there is growing evidence that microeukaryotes living on and in larger organisms (e.g. plants, animals, macroalgae) are diverse and in many cases abundant. We present here a new combination of 'anti-metazoan' primers: 574*f-UNonMet_DB that amplify a wide diversity of microeukaryotes including some groups that are difficult to amplify using other primer combinations. While many groups of microeukaryotic parasites are recognised, myriad other microeukaryotes are associated with hosts as previously unknown parasites (often genetically divergent so difficult to amplify using standard PCR primers), opportunistic parasites, commensals, and other ecto- and endo-symbionts, across the 'symbiotic continuum'. These fulfil a wide range of roles from pathogenesis to mutually beneficial symbioses, but mostly their roles are unknown and likely fall somewhere along this spectrum, with the potential to switch the nature of their interactions with the host under different conditions. The composition and dynamics of host-associated microbial communities are also increasingly recognised as important moderators of host health. This 'pathobiome' approach to understanding disease is beginning to supercede a one-pathogen-one-disease paradigm, which cannot sufficiently explain many disease scenarios.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Bass
- Centre for Environment, Aquaculture and Fisheries Science (Cefas), Barrack Road, Weymouth, Dorset DT4 8UB, UK; Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK; Sustainable Aquaculture Futures, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QD, UK; Biosciences, University of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter EX4 4HB, UK.
| | - Javier Del Campo
- Department of Marine Biology and Ecology, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149, USA
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Bass D, Stentiford GD, Wang HC, Koskella B, Tyler CR. The Pathobiome in Animal and Plant Diseases. Trends Ecol Evol 2019; 34:996-1008. [PMID: 31522755 DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2019.07.012] [Citation(s) in RCA: 132] [Impact Index Per Article: 26.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/30/2019] [Revised: 07/14/2019] [Accepted: 07/23/2019] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
A growing awareness of the diversity and ubiquity of microbes (eukaryotes, prokaryotes, and viruses) associated with larger 'host' organisms has led to the realisation that many diseases thought to be caused by one primary agent are the result of interactions between multiple taxa and the host. Even where a primary agent can be identified, its effect is often moderated by other symbionts. Therefore, the one pathogen-one disease paradigm is shifting towards the pathobiome concept, integrating the interaction of multiple symbionts, host, and environment in a new understanding of disease aetiology. Taxonomically, pathobiomes are variable across host species, ecology, tissue type, and time. Therefore, a more functionally driven understanding of pathobiotic systems is necessary, based on gene expression, metabolic interactions, and ecological processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Bass
- Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS), Barrack Road, The Nothe, Weymouth, DT4 8UB, UK; Sustainable Aquaculture Futures, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QD, UK; Department of Life Sciences, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, UK.
| | - Grant D Stentiford
- Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (CEFAS), Barrack Road, The Nothe, Weymouth, DT4 8UB, UK; Sustainable Aquaculture Futures, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QD, UK
| | - Han-Ching Wang
- Department of Biotechnology and Bioindustry Sciences, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, 70101, Taiwan; International Center for Scientific Development of Shrimp Aquaculture, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, 70101, Taiwan
| | - Britt Koskella
- Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
| | - Charles R Tyler
- Sustainable Aquaculture Futures, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QD, UK; Biosciences, University of Exeter, Stocker Road, Exeter, EX4 4HB, UK
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Koike K, Akai N, Liao LM, Ikeda S, Yoshimatsu S. Chlorophycean parasite on a marine fish, Sillago japonica (Japanese sillago). Parasitol Int 2013; 62:586-9. [PMID: 23831892 DOI: 10.1016/j.parint.2013.06.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2012] [Revised: 04/30/2013] [Accepted: 06/17/2013] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
A green spotted Japanese sillago (Sillago japonica) was caught by a fisherman and brought to the laboratory for pathological inspection. The green spots were abundant on the lateral line and more extensively so within the mouth cavity. In both sites, green spots were embedded within the fish flesh and formed 2-3mm dome-shaped colonies. SEM revealed these colonies to harbor numerous unknown cells with small, surface warts (ornamentations). Molecular analysis showed the cells were Desmodesmus (D. komarekii), a common freshwater coccoid green alga found in ponds and rivers worldwide. It is uncertain how the host fish came to be infected with the alga which was not merely attached externally but embedded within the flesh and inside the mouth cavity. This is the first case of parasitic form of coccoid green algae in marine fish and provides new insights into the variable nature of green algae.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kazuhiko Koike
- Graduate School of Biosphere Science, Hiroshima University, Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima 739-8528, Japan.
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Abstract
Peritonitis due to infections with green algae was diagnosed at slaughter (in Texas and South Dakota) in 2 cows. One cow also had a generalized lymphadenitis. The intralesional green algae were histologically similar to those previously associated with bovine lymphadenitis. Amplified and sequenced algal ITS2 genes had higher homology with the genus Scenedesmus than with Chlorella.
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Affiliation(s)
- S Hafner
- United States Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service, Office of Public Health Science, Eastern Laboratory, Athens, GA 30605, USA.
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Abstract
Cytology is an essential part of a diagnostic workup in cases of aquatic animal diseases. It is simple to perform, inexpensive, and can yield quick and valuable results. External parasites, bacterial and fungal diseases, and gastrointestinal infestations are easily determined with wet mount cytology. Because of the relatively small number of nonlethal diagnostic techniques available for aquatic species, cytologic testing should be considered in every case. Early diagnosis can lead to more effective treatment plans, ensuring a better prognostic outcome in our patients.
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Affiliation(s)
- Drury Reavill
- Zoo/Exotic Pathology Service, 7647 Wachtel Way, Citrus Heights, CA 95610, USA.
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