Diversity of cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins in Hartbeespoort Dam, South Africa

Summary

The South African Hartbeespoort Dam is known for the occurrence of heavy Microcystis blooms. Although a few other cyanobacterial genera have been described, no detailed study on those cyanobacteria and their potential toxin production has been conducted. The diversity of cyanobacterial species and toxins are most probably underestimated. To ascertain the cyanobacterial composition and presence of cyanobacterial toxins in Hartbeespoort Dam, a water sample was collected in April 2011. Twenty-seven cyanobacterial strains were isolated and analysed. In a polyphasic approach, all strains were classified morphologically and phylogenetically and tested for microcystins (MCs), cylindrospermopsin (CYN), saxitoxins (STXs) and anatoxin-a (ATX) by liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) and screened for the presence of toxin-encoding gene fragments. The isolated strains were identified as Sphaerospermopsis reniformis, Sphaerospermopsis aphanizomenoides, Cylindrospermopsis curvispora, Raphidiopsis curvata, Raphidiopsis mediterrranea and Microcystis aeruginosa. Only one of the Microcystis strains (AB2011/53) produced microcystins (35 variants). Forty-one microcystin variants were detected in the environmental sample from Hartbeespoort Dam, suggesting the existence of other microcystin producing strains in Hartbeespoort Dam. All investigated strains tested negative for CYN, STXs and ATX and their encoding genes. The mcyE gene of the microcystin gene cluster was found in the microcystin-producing Microcystis strain AB2011/53 and in eight non microcystin-producing Microcystis strains, indicating that mycE is not a good surrogate for microcystin production in environmental samples.