AUTHOR=Saxton Matthew A., Arnold Robert J., Bourbonniere Richard A., McKay Robert M., Wilhelm Steven W.

TITLE=Plasticity of Total and Intracellular Phosphorus Quotas in Microcystis aeruginosa Cultures and Lake Erie Algal Assemblages

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=Volume 3 - 2012

YEAR=2012

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2012.00003

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2012.00003

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=Blooms of the potentially toxic cyanobacterium Microcystis are common events globally, and as a result significant resources continue to be dedicated to monitoring and controlling these events. Recent studies have shown that a significant proportion total cell-associated phosphorus (P) in phytoplankton can be surface adsorbed, and many of our current measurements do not accurately reflect the P demands of these organisms.  In this study we measure the total cell-associated and intracellular P as well as growth rates of two toxic strains of Microcystis aeruginosa Kütz grown under a range of P concentrations.  The results show that the intracellular P pool in Microcystis represents a percentage of total cell-associated P (50-90%) similar to what has been reported for actively growing algae in marine systems. Intracellular P levels (39-147 fg cell-1) generally increased with increasing growth media P concentrations, but growth rate and the ratio of total cell-associated to intracellular P remained generally stable. Intracellular P quotas and growth rates in cells grown under the different P treatments illustrate the ability of this organism to successfully respond to changes in ambient P loads, and thus have implications for ecosystem scale productivity models employing P concentrations to predict algal bloom events.