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African Origin and Europe-Mediated Global Dispersal of The Cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa

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Abstract

Microcystis aeruginosa is a bloom-forming cyanobacteria, which currently has a cosmopolitan distribution. Since M. aeruginosa can produce toxic compounds across all continents that it inhabits, it is of major public health relevance to assess its origin and dispersal. Thus, we conducted a worldwide study using 29 isolates representative of all the main continents, and used a concatenated genetic system for phylogenetic analyses consisting of four genetic markers (spanning ca. 3,485 bp). Our results support an early origin of M. aeruginosa in the African continent, with a subsequent dispersal to establish a second genetic pool in the European continent, from where M. aeruginosa then colonized the remaining continental regions. Our findings indicate that the European population has a cosmopolitan distribution, and is genetically closer to populations from Africa and North America. Our study also highlights the utility of using a concatenated dataset for phylogenetic inferences in cyanobacteria.

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Acknowledgments

Cristiana Moreira was funded by a Ph.D. fellowship (SFRH/BD/47164/2008) from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT). Agostinho Antunes was partially supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the COMPETE-Operational Competitiveness Programme and national funds through FCT under the projects PEst-C/MAR/LA0015/2013, PTDC/AAC-AMB/104983/2008 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-008610) and PTDC/AAC-CLI/116122/2009 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-014029).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CIIMAR/CIMAR, Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental, Universidade do Porto, Rua dos Bragas, 289, 4050-123, Porto, Portugal

    Cristiana Moreira, Vitor Vasconcelos & Agostinho Antunes

  2. Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre, 4169-007, Porto, Portugal

    Cristiana Moreira, Vitor Vasconcelos & Agostinho Antunes

  3. Genetics and Biotechnology Lab, C2008 Aras de Brun, Plant and AgriBiosciences Research Centre (PABC), School of Natural Sciences, National University of Ireland Galway, University Rd, Galway, Ireland

    Charles Spillane

  4. Unité de Recherche Ecosystèmes et Ressources Aquatiques, Institut National Agronomique de Tunisie, 43, Avenue Charles-Nicolle, 1082, Tunis, Tunisia

    Afef Fathalli

Authors
  1. Cristiana Moreira
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  2. Charles Spillane
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  3. Afef Fathalli
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  4. Vitor Vasconcelos
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  5. Agostinho Antunes
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Agostinho Antunes.

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Moreira, C., Spillane, C., Fathalli, A. et al. African Origin and Europe-Mediated Global Dispersal of The Cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa . Curr Microbiol 69, 628–633 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-014-0628-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-014-0628-2

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