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Phormidium sp. allelochemicals induce the collapse of large populations of different genotypes of Microcystis aeruginosa

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Abstract

In the present study, we aimed to demonstrate that allelopathic compounds from the cyanobacterium Phormidium sp. can induce the collapse of large populations of the cyanobacteria Microcystis aeruginosa Kützing Kützing. We employed several strains of this toxic cyanobacteria, from six different locations, in order to test for adaptive variation in resistance to allelochemicals. As a preliminary test to detect allelopathic effect, we performed bioassays with Phormidium allelochemicals against the different strains of M. aeruginosa at low population abundances. Then, we combined long-term competition experiments and mechanistic modelling with two purposes: (a) demonstrate that the inhibitory effect of Phormidium sp. against M. aeruginosa was due to allelopathy and not resource competition; (b) test the effectiveness of these allelochemicals at inducing the collapse of large populations of M. aeruginosa. Our results showed a strong allelopathic effect of Phormidium, which induced the collapse of large populations of M. aeruginosa, without evidence of differences in sensitivity between strains. We demonstrated that allelopathy (interference competition) can reverse the outcome predicted by resource competition (exploitation competition). These results are encouraging in order to take further steps in the development of a bioremediation method, based in Phormidium allelopathy, against blooms of toxic cyanobacteria.

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Acknowledgements

We are very thankful to M. Vale, J. Morais, R. Silva, J. Azevedo and P. Reis for their valuable technical support. This work was funded by NOVELMAR Project—Novel marine products with biotechnological applications (Grant No. NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000035) for supporting this work, funded by FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology, Portugal). ABF was also funded by contract from FCT. We are also very thankful to two anonymous reviewers whose comments and suggestions greatly improved this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental (CIIMAR), Av. General Norton de Matos s/n, Matosinhos, Portugal

    Ángela Vidal Pando, Mariana Alves Pires, Vitor Vasconcelos & Aldo Barreiro Felpeto

  2. Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campoalegre, Porto, Portugal

    Ángela Vidal Pando, Mariana Alves Pires & Vitor Vasconcelos

  3. Facultad de Ciencias Experimentales, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Seville, Spain

    Ángela Vidal Pando

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  1. Ángela Vidal Pando
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  2. Mariana Alves Pires
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  3. Vitor Vasconcelos
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  4. Aldo Barreiro Felpeto
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AVP and MAP—performed research, data analysis and wrote the manuscript. ABF—designed research, performed data analysis and wrote the manuscript, VV—designed research and wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Aldo Barreiro Felpeto.

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Pando, Á.V., Pires, M.A., Vasconcelos, V. et al. Phormidium sp. allelochemicals induce the collapse of large populations of different genotypes of Microcystis aeruginosa. Hydrobiologia 849, 3213–3226 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-022-04926-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-022-04926-5

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