Phylogenetic Inference of Colony Isolates Comprising Seasonal Microcystis Blooms in Lake Taihu, China

Blooms of the toxin-producing cyanobacterium, Microcystis spp., are an increasingly prevalent water quality problem and health hazard worldwide. China’s third largest lake, Lake Taihu, has been experiencing progressively more severe Microcystis blooms over the past three decades. In 2009 and 2010, individual Microcystis colonies, consisting of four different morphospecies, were isolated and genotyped using a whole-cell multiplex PCR assay. The 16S–23S rDNA-ITS sequences were aligned based on Bayesian inference and indicated that one morphospecies was genetically unique (Microcystis wesenbergii) and three were indistinguishable (Microcystis aeruginosa, Microcystis flos-aquae, and Microcystis ichthyoblabe). Microcystin (mcyB) genes were detected intermittently in two of the morphospecies while the other two morphospecies lacked the mcyB gene in all samples. Water temperature was found to influence bloom formation and morphotype prevalence, and chlorophyll a and temperature were positively and significantly correlated with microcystin concentration. Cooler water temperatures promoted toxigenic strains of Microcystis. Wind appeared to influence the distribution of morphotypes across the lake, with M. aeruginosa and M. ichthyoblabe being more susceptible to wind stress than M. wesenbergii and M. flos-aquae. The results of this study indicated that the blooms were composed of a variety of Microcystis morphospecies, with more genotypes observed than can be attributed to individual morphotypes. We conclude that morphology is not a reliable indicator of toxigenicity in Lake Taihu, and caution should be exercised when the M. aeruginosa morphotype is present because it is capable of producing MC-LR, the most toxic microcystin isoform.