TY - JOUR
T1 - Evaluation of the MIDTAL microarray chip for monitoring toxic microalgae in the Orkney Islands, U.K.
AU - Taylor, Joe D.
AU - Berzano, Marco
AU - Percy, Linda
AU - Lewis, Jane
N1 - Copyright © 2013, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
Funding Information:
AcknowledgmentsThe authors thank Dennis Gowland from research relay for carrying out some of the sampling and the other MIDTAL partners. This work was funded by the European Union under the FP7 water framework directive grant agreement number 201724.
PY - 2013/1/6
Y1 - 2013/1/6
N2 - Harmful or nuisance algal blooms can cause economic damage to fisheries and tourism. Additionally, toxins produced by harmful algae and ingested via contaminated shellfish can be potentially fatal to humans. The seas around the Orkney Islands, UK currently hold a number of toxic algal species which cause shellfishery closures in most years. Extensive and costly monitoring programs are carried out to detect harmful microalgae before they reach action levels. However, the ability to distinguish between toxic and non-toxic strains of some algae is not possible using these methods. The microarrays for the detection of toxic algae (MIDTAL) microarray contains rRNA probes for toxic algal species/strains which have been adapted and optimized for microarray use. In order to investigate the use of the chip for monitoring in the Orkney Islands, samples were collected between 2009 and 2011 from Brings Deep, Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands, UK; RNA was extracted and hybridized with generation 2 and 3.1 of the chip. The data were then compared to cell counts performed under light microscopy and in the case of Alexandrium tamarense to qPCR data targeting the saxitoxin gene and the LSU-rRNA gene. A good agreement between cell numbers and microarray signal was found for A. tamarense, Pseudo-nitzschia sp., Dinophysis sp. (r < 0.5, for all) in addition to this there the chip successfully detected a large bloom of Karenia mikimotoi (r < 0.70) in August and September 2011. Overall, there was good improvement in probe signal between generation 2 and generation 3.1 of the chip with much less variability and more consistent results and better correlation between the probes. The chip performed well for A. tamarense group I signal to cell numbers in calibrations (r > 0.9). However, in field samples, this correlation was slightly lower suggesting interactions between all species in the sample may affect signal. Overall, the chip showed it could identify the presence of target species in field samples although some work is needed to improve the quantitative nature of the chip before it would be suitable for monitoring in the Orkney Islands.
AB - Harmful or nuisance algal blooms can cause economic damage to fisheries and tourism. Additionally, toxins produced by harmful algae and ingested via contaminated shellfish can be potentially fatal to humans. The seas around the Orkney Islands, UK currently hold a number of toxic algal species which cause shellfishery closures in most years. Extensive and costly monitoring programs are carried out to detect harmful microalgae before they reach action levels. However, the ability to distinguish between toxic and non-toxic strains of some algae is not possible using these methods. The microarrays for the detection of toxic algae (MIDTAL) microarray contains rRNA probes for toxic algal species/strains which have been adapted and optimized for microarray use. In order to investigate the use of the chip for monitoring in the Orkney Islands, samples were collected between 2009 and 2011 from Brings Deep, Scapa Flow, Orkney Islands, UK; RNA was extracted and hybridized with generation 2 and 3.1 of the chip. The data were then compared to cell counts performed under light microscopy and in the case of Alexandrium tamarense to qPCR data targeting the saxitoxin gene and the LSU-rRNA gene. A good agreement between cell numbers and microarray signal was found for A. tamarense, Pseudo-nitzschia sp., Dinophysis sp. (r < 0.5, for all) in addition to this there the chip successfully detected a large bloom of Karenia mikimotoi (r < 0.70) in August and September 2011. Overall, there was good improvement in probe signal between generation 2 and generation 3.1 of the chip with much less variability and more consistent results and better correlation between the probes. The chip performed well for A. tamarense group I signal to cell numbers in calibrations (r > 0.9). However, in field samples, this correlation was slightly lower suggesting interactions between all species in the sample may affect signal. Overall, the chip showed it could identify the presence of target species in field samples although some work is needed to improve the quantitative nature of the chip before it would be suitable for monitoring in the Orkney Islands.
KW - Alexandrium tamarense
KW - Dinophysis
KW - Harmful algae
KW - Karenia mikimotoi
KW - Microarray
KW - MIDTAL
KW - Monitoring
KW - Orkney islands
KW - qPCR
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U2 - 10.1007/s11356-012-1393-z
DO - 10.1007/s11356-012-1393-z
M3 - Article
C2 - 23292222
AN - SCOPUS:84884702267
SN - 0944-1344
VL - 20
SP - 6765
EP - 6777
JO - Environmental Science and Pollution Research
JF - Environmental Science and Pollution Research
IS - 10
ER -