Abstract
Bound extracellular polymeric substances (bEPS) play an important role in the proliferation of Microcystis. However, the understanding of bEPS characterization remains limited. In this study, three-dimensional fluorescence excitation-emission matrix (3D-EEM) spectroscopy and zeta potentiometer were used to characterize the loosely bound EPS (LB-EPS) and tightly bound EPS (TB-EPS) from two dominant Microcystis morphospecies from Taihu Lake (China) at different light intensities. Physiochemical analysis showed that the growth and TB-EPS or bEPS contents in Microcystis aeruginosa were higher than those in Microcystis flos-aquae at each light intensity. The 3D-EEM contour demonstrated that the intensities of peak B (tryptophan-like substances) in the TB-EPS from M. aeruginosa were stronger than those from M. flos-aquae when the light intensity was higher than 10 µE/(m2·s). Zeta potential analysis showed that the absolute values of the zeta potential of TB-EPS in the two species both increased with rising light intensity, except those of TB-EPS in M. aeruginosa at 105 µE/(m2·s). Moreover, the absolute values of the zeta potential of M. aeruginosa were higher than those of M. flos-aquae at each light intensity. All these results indicated that M. aeruginosa may more quickly proliferate than M. flos-aquae through increased negative charges, bEPS contents, growth, and tryptophan-like substance contents at certain light intensities.
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Data Availability Statement
The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31800457) and the Natural Science Foundation of Hubei (No. 2016CFB355)
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Wang, X., Han, X. & Ge, H. Effect of light intensity on bound EPS characteristics of two Microcystis morphospecies: the role of bEPS in the proliferation of Microcystis. J. Ocean. Limnol. 40, 1706–1719 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-022-1362-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-022-1362-4