Abstract
Nannochloropsis is an ubiquitous genus, found in diverse aquatic environments including open ocean as well as fresh and brackish water. Recently, large-scale blooms occurred frequently along eutrophic coastal zone from the Bohai Sea to the northern Yellow Sea in China. The cell density reached 109 to 1010cells per liter during a bloom near Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province. The bloom forming species, a yellow–green microalgae was successfully isolated and cultivated in the laboratory. Microscopic observation indicated that the cells contained simple morphological characteristics with a diameter about 2 μm. Pigment analyses confirmed that the pigment composition of the newly isolated strain BDH02 was similar to that of Nannochloropsis granulata. Phylogenetic analyses of 18S rRNA gene, ITS, and rbcL gene indicated that the strain was closely related to N. granulata. This is the first record of a bloom caused by N. granulata in China.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adachi M, Sako Y, Ishida Y (1996) Analysis of Alexandrium (Dinophyceae) species using sequences of the 5.8S ribosomal DNA and internal transcribed spacer regions. J Phycol 32:424–432
Adl SM, Simpson AG, Farmer MA, Andersen RA, Anderson OR, Barta JR, Bowser SS, Brugerolle G, Fensome RA, Fredericq S, James TY, Karpov S, Kugrens P, Krug J, Lane CE, Lewis LA, Lodge J, Lynn DH, Mann DG, Mccourt RM, Mendoza L, Moestrup Ø, Mozley-Standridge SE, Nerad TA, Shearer CA, Smirnov AV, Spiegel FW, Taylor MJR (2005) The new higher level classification of eukaryotes with emphasis on the taxonomy of protists. J Eukaryot Microbiol 52:399–451
Andersen RA, Brett RW, Potter D, Sexton JP (1998) Phylogeny of the Eustigmatophyceae based upon 18S rDNA, with emphasis on Nannochloropsis. Protist 149:61–74
Andreoli C, Bresciani E, Moro I, Scarabel L (1999) A survey on a persistent greenish bloom in the Comacchio lagoons (Ferrara, Italy). Bot Mar 42(5):467–479
Apt KE, Behrens PW (1999) Commercial developments in microalgal biotechnology. J Phycol 35:215–226
Cremen MCM, Martinez-Goss MR, Corre VL, Azanza RV (2007) Phytoplankton bloom in commercial shrimp ponds using green-water technology. J Appl Phycol 19(6):615–624
Czechowska K, Johnson DR, van der Meer JR (2008) Use of flow cytometric methods for single-cell analysis in environmental microbiology. Curr Opin Microbiol 11:205–212
Daugbjerg N, Andersen RA (1997) A molecular phylogeny of the heterokont algae based on analyses of chloroplast-encoded rbcL gene sequence data. J Phycol 33:1031–1041
Fawley KP, Fawley MW (2007) Observations on the diversity and ecology of freshwater Nannochloropsis (Eustigmatophyceae), with descriptions of new taxa. Protist 158(3):325–336
Fietz A, Bleiß W, Hepperle D, Koppitz H, Krienitz L, Nicklisch A (2005) First record of Nannochloropsis limnetica (Eustigmatophyceae) in the autotrophic picoplankton from lake Baikal. J Phycol 41(4):780–790
Fogg GE (1995) Some comments on picoplankton and its importance in the pelagic ecosystem. Aquat Microbt Ecol 9:33–39
Furuya K, Marumo R (1983) The structure of the phytoplankton community in the subsurface Chlorophyll maxima in the western North Pacific Ocean. J Plankton Res 5:393–406
Gladu PK, Patterson GW, Wikfors GH, Smith BE (1995) Sterol fatty acid and pigment characteristics of UTEX 2341, a marine eustigmatophyte identified previously as Chlorella minutissima (Chlorophyceae). J Phycol 31:774–777
Guillard RRL, Ryther JH (1962) Studies of marine planktonic diatoms. I. Cyclotella nana Hustedt and Detonula conferraceae Cleve. Can J Microbiol 8:229–239
Hibberd DJ (1981) Notes on the taxonomy and nomenclature of the algal classes Eustigmatophyceae and Tribophyceae (synonym Xanthophyceae). Bot J Linn Soc 82:93–119
Hu H, Gao K (2003) Optimization of growth and fatty acid composition of a unicellular marine picoplankton, Nannochloropsis sp., with enriched carbon sources. Biotechnol Lett 25:421–425
Karlson B, Potter D, Kuylenstiernam M, Andersen RA (1996) Ultrastructure, pigment composition, and 18S rRNA gene sequence for Nannochloropsis granulata sp. nov. (Monodopsidaceae, Eustigmatophyceae), a marine ultraplankter isolated from the Skagerrak, northeast Atlantic Ocean. Phycologia 35:253–260
Krienitz L, Hepperle D, Stich HB, Weiler W (2000) Nannochloropsis limnetica (Eustigmatophyceae), a new species of picoplankton from freshwater. Phycologia 39:219–227
Liu J, Schardl CL (1994) A conserved sequence in internal transcribed spacer 1 of plant nuclear rRNA genes. Plant Mol Biol 26:775–778
Lubián LM (1982) Nannochloropsis gaditana sp. nov., unanueva Eustigmatophyceae marina. Lazaroa 4:293–387
Lubián LM, Montero O, Moreno-Garrido I, Huertas E, Sobrino C, Valle MG, Pares G (2000) Nannochloropsis (Eustigmatophyceae) as a source of commercially valuable pigments. J Appl Phycol 12(3-5):249–255
Mantoura RFC, Llewellyn CA (1983) The rapid determination of algal Chlorophyll and carotenoid pigments and their breakdown products in natural waters by reverse phase high performance liquid chromatography. Anal Chim Acta 121:297–314
Maruyama I, Nakamura T, Matsubayashi T, Ando Y, Maeda T (1986) Identification of the alga known as ‘marine Chlorella’ as a member of the Eustigmatophyceae. Jpn J Phycol 34:319–325
Medlin L, Elwood HJ, Stickel S, Sogin ML (1988) The characterization of enzymatically amplified eukaryotic 16S-like rRNA-coding regions. Gene 71:491–499
Phillips KA, Fawley MW (2000) Diversity of coccoid algae in shallow lakes during winter. Phycologia 39:498–506
Santos LMA, Leedale GP (1995) Some notes on the ultrastructure of small azoosporic members of the algal class Eustigmatophyceae. Nova Hedwigia 60:219–225
Shi J, Pan K, Yu J, Zhu B (2008) Analysis of expressed sequence tags from the marine microalga Nannochloropsis oculata (Eustigmatophyceae). J Phycol 44:99–102
Suda S, Atsumi M, Miyashita H (2002) Taxonomic characterization of a marine Nannochloropsis species, N. oceanica sp. nov. (Eustigmatophyceae). Phycologia 41(3):273–279
Tonon T, Harvey D, Larson TR, Graham IA (2002) Long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid production and partitioning to triacylglycerols in four microalgae. Phytochemistry 61:15–24
Van Heukelem L, Thomas CS (2001) Computer-assisted high-performance liquid chromatography method development with applications to the isolation and analysis of phytoplankton pigments. J Chromatogr A 10:31–49
Volkman JK, Brown MR, Dunstan GA, Jeffery SW (1993) The biochemical composition of marine microalgae from the class Eustigmatophyceae. J Phycol 29:69–78
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank DrAijun Zhang at the North China Sea Branch of The State Oceanic Administration for her help on coordination of cruise and samplings. This study was supported by the Ocean Public Welfare Scientific Research Project (201005015-1), National Basic Research Program of China (No.2011CB409804), and Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (No. NCET-12-1065), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41176136 and 41276124), and Key Project of Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin (No.12JCZDJC30100) to Jun Sun.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhang, X., Kan, J., Wang, J. et al. First record of a large-scale bloom-causing species Nannochloropsis granulata (Monodopsidaceae, Eustigmatophyceae) in China Sea waters. Ecotoxicology 24, 1430–1441 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-015-1466-0
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10646-015-1466-0