Occurrence of Harmful Cyanobacteria in Drinking Water from a Severely Drought-Impacted Semi-arid Region

Overview

Journal Front Microbiol

Specialty Microbiology

Date 2018 Mar 16

PMID 29541063

Citations 9

Authors

Juline M Walter

Fabyano A C Lopes

Monica Lopes-Ferreira

Livia M Vidal

Luciana Leomil

Fabiana Melo

Girlene S de Azevedo

Rossandra M S Oliveira

Alba J Medeiros

Adriana S O Melo

Carlos E de Rezende

Amilcar Tanuri

Fabiano L Thompson

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Harmful cyanobacterial blooms have become increasingly common in freshwater ecosystems in recent decades, mainly due to eutrophication and climate change. Water becomes unreliable for human consumption. Here, we report a comprehensive study carried out to investigate the water quality of several Campina Grande reservoirs. Our approach included metagenomics, microbial abundance quantification, ELISA test for three cyanotoxins (microcystin, nodularins, and cylindrospermopsin), and ecotoxicological tests with zebrafish embryos. Cytometry analysis showed high cyanobacterial abundance, while metagenomics identified an average of 10.6% of cyanobacterial sequences, and demonstrated the presence of , , and toxin coding genes in all ponds. Zebrafish embryos reared with pond water had high mortality and diverse malformations. Among the ponds analyzed, Araçagi showed the highest lethality (an average of 62.9 ± 0.8%), followed by Boqueirão (lethality average of 62.5 ± 0.8%). Here, we demonstrate that water from ponds undergoing extremely drought conditions have an abundance of potentially harmful cyanobacteria and their toxins. Our findings are consistent with a scenario in which polluted drinking water poses a great risk to human health.

Citing Articles

Impacts of climate-induced drought on lake and reservoir biodiversity and ecosystem services: A review.

Sun X, Armstrong M, Moradi A, Bhattacharya R, Antao-Geraldes A, Munthali E Ambio. 2025; 54(3):488-504.

PMID: 39775407 PMC: 11780055. DOI: 10.1007/s13280-024-02092-7.

Taxonomic dependency of beta diversity for bacteria, archaea, and fungi in a semi-arid lake.

Yuan H, Zhang W, Yin H, Zhang R, Wang J Front Microbiol. 2022; 13:998496.

PMID: 36406397 PMC: 9670189. DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.998496.

Status of state cyanoHAB outreach and monitoring efforts, United States.

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Risk of Collapse in Water Quality in the Guandu River (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).

Bacha L, Ventura R, Barrios M, Seabra J, Tschoeke D, Garcia G Microb Ecol. 2021; 84(1):314-324.

PMID: 34424345 DOI: 10.1007/s00248-021-01839-z.

Global scanning of cylindrospermopsin: Critical review and analysis of aquatic occurrence, bioaccumulation, toxicity and health hazards.

Scarlett K, Kim S, Lovin L, Chatterjee S, Scott J, Brooks B Sci Total Environ. 2020; 738:139807.

PMID: 32585507 PMC: 8204307. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139807.

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