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

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2022

Authors

Pando, AV (Author) Other; Pires, MA (Author) Other; Vitor Vasconcelos (Author) FCUP; Felpeto, AB (Author) Other

Journal

Title: Hydrobiologia

Vol. 849

Pages: 3213-3226

ISSN: 0018-8158

Publisher: Springer Nature

Indexing

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Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00W-VPS

DOI: 10.1007/s10750-022-04926-5

Abstract (EN): 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 Kutzing Kutzing. 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.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 14