Journal of Environmental Biology

Physiological characterization and molecular profiling of

toxic and non-toxic isolates of Cyanobacterium Microcystis

Pranita Jaiswal¹*, Radha Prasanna²?and Pawan K. Singh³

¹Central Institute of Post Harvest Engineering and Technology,PAU Campus, Ludhiana-141 004, India

²Division of Microbiology, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi-110 012, India

3Department of Botany, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi-221 005, India

*Corresponding Author email : pranitajaiswal@gmail.com

Publication Data

Paper received:

23 September 2011

Revised received:

19 January 2012

Accepted:

22 March 2012

Abstract

Our investigation aimed to utilize physiological attributes and molecular tools for distinguishing the toxic strain of Microcystis from other non toxic strains, belonging to the same genus. Physiological characterization of five Microcystis isolates indicated that the toxic strain (M1) exhibited significantly higher pigment accumulation (phycocyanin: 54.20 ?g ml^-1; allophycocyanin: 18.2 ?g ml^-1) and sugar content (74.25 ?g ml^-1), which may be providing a competitive advantage for successful colonization and proliferation. Profiling using repeat sequence primers (STRR, Hip) was helpful in distinguishing different strains (M1-M5) and HIP TG profile was unique to M1. SDS-PAGE profile of the five strains indicated the presence of a unique band (25kDa) in M1. The combined use of SDS-PAGE and HipTG profiles can help in providing distinct fingerprint for the toxic strain, which can be useful in its identification.

Key words

Algal blooms, Microcystis, Molecular polymorphism, Repetitive sequences, SDS-PAGE profile

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