Characterization and spatio-temporal dynamics of Cylindrospermopsis raciborski in an Amazonian Lagoon, Ecuador.

Abstract

<jats:p>The cyanobacteria Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii, is a fresh water ubiquitous species from tropical to temperate weather. It is potentially capable of producing toxins. Thus it is necessary to monitor its presence in fresh waters associated to recreational use activities and human consumption. There are official reports and one thesis reporting the presence of C. raciborskii in Ecuador. Nevertheless, this country does not appear in the latest distribution maps of this species in the scientific literature. In this article, we report the presence of C. raciborskii in Ecuador, together with the characterization of the environmental conditions of one of the habitats where this species is present: the Limoncocha lagoon, province of Sucumbíos.</jats:p>

Screening of cyanotoxin producing genes in Ecuadorian freshwater systems

“…Limoncocha Lagoon also fulfills the environmental conditions for this species to bloom (Mowe et al, 2015;Padisák, 1997;Padisák & Reynolds, 1998;Whitton & Potts, 2002), as it is highly eutrophicated due to natural processes and sewage from nearby Limoncocha village and has a temperature ranging from 28 °C to 32.23 °C (Gómez Durañona, 2005). The presence of cyrE from R. raciborskii sample in this lagoon was consistent with the report of this cyanobacterium by Venegas et al (2018). Mojanda Lagoon, where also cyrE1 sequence was detected, is located at 3,710 m asl with an average temperature of approximately 13.5 ºC, this lagoon is mesotrophic due to anthropic activities such as livestock.…”

“…The closest match to the cyrE2 sequence at the GenBank was 98% identity to cyrE related to Aphanizomenon sp., which has been described as a benthic cyanobacterium genus (Gaget et al, 2017). In South America, most isolated strains from R. raciborskii are reported to produce saxitoxins (Hoff-Risseti et al, 2013), although CN producers have also been found in Brazil and Venezuela (Antunes et al, 2015;Mowe et al, 2015), and Ecuador (Ballesteros et al, 2021;Van Colen et al, 2017;Venegas et al, 2018). Even though R. racibosrkii has been reported in Yahuarcocha and San Pablo in association with the presence of CN (Van Colen et al, 2017), cyrJ was not amplified from samples in these water bodies.…”