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Effect of Anthracene (ANT) on Growth, Microcystin (MC) Production and Expression of MC Synthetase (mcy) Genes in Microcystis aeruginosa

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Abstract

ANT is a commonly occurring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) in natural eutrophic waters where Microcystis blooms break out usually. In this study, effects of ANT at different concentrations (0.02, 0.06, 0.18, 0.54, and 1.62 μg/mL) on the growth, microcystin-LR (MC-LR) production, and expression of three key mcy genes in Microcystis aeruginosa were investigated. The results showed that all the tested concentrations of ANT inhibited M. aeruginosa growth significantly except 0.02 μg/mL ANT in the early stage of the experiment. In the culture media, initially applied ANT concentrations decreased significantly after 3 days of incubation. ANT stimulated MC-LR production in a concentration-dependent manner. After exposure to ANT for 1 day, the expression of mcyB gene was inhibited and the inhibitory effects increased with ANT concentrations. ANT at higher concentrations (above 0.02 μg/mL) stimulated gene expression of mcyD (P < 0.05) and mcyH (P < 0.01) significantly, and 0.02 μg/mL of ANT inhibited their expression significantly (P < 0.01). With increasing culture time, 0.18 μg/mL of ANT inhibited mcyB gene expression first and then stimulated it while gene expressions of mcyD and mcyH were stimulated throughout the experiment. Our results suggested that ANT in natural waters could affect not only Microcystis growth but also MC production via modifying mcy gene expressions.

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Acknowledgments

The financial supports provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 31300393), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 2015T80212, 2014M551013), Project of Tianjin Municipal Science and Technology (Grant No. 16JCYBJC29900, 15ZCZDNC00230), and Modern Aqua-ecology and Health Aquaculture Innovation Team of Tianjin (Grant No. TD12-5018) are gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Aquatic-Ecology and Aquaculture of Tianjin, Fisheries College, Tianjin Agricultural University, Tianjin, 300384, China

    Xiangdong Bi, Wei Dai, Ying Wang, Shaojie Dong, Shulin Zhang, Xiuting Qiao & Guoxia Zhu

  2. Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria (Ministry of Education), College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China

    Xiangdong Bi & Qixing Zhou

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  1. Xiangdong Bi
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Correspondence to Wei Dai.

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Bi, X., Dai, W., Zhou, Q. et al. Effect of Anthracene (ANT) on Growth, Microcystin (MC) Production and Expression of MC Synthetase (mcy) Genes in Microcystis aeruginosa . Water Air Soil Pollut 227, 259 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-016-2956-2

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