Journal article
Rapid, multiplex-tandem PCR assay for automated detection and differentiation of toxigenic cyanobacterial blooms
L Baker, BC Sendall, RB Gasser, T Menjivar, BA Neilan, AR Jex
Molecular and Cellular Probes | ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD | Published : 2013
Abstract
Cyanobacterial blooms are a major water quality issue and potential public health risk in freshwater, marine and estuarine ecosystems globally, because of their potential to produce cyanotoxins. To date, a significant challenge in the effective management of cyanobacterial has been an inability of classical microscopy-based approaches to consistently and reliably detect and differentiate toxic from non-toxic blooms. The potential of cyanobacteria to produce toxins has been linked to the presence of specific biosynthetic gene clusters. Here, we describe the application of a robotic PCR-based assay for the semi-automated and simultaneous detection of toxin biosynthesis genes of each of the tox..
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Funding Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge funding for the current project from Water Quality Research Australia (WQRA), and thank the following Victorian water industry partners for their financial contributions and provision of field samples for testing: Barwon Water, Southern Rural Water, South Gippsland Water, Goulburn Murray Water, Goulburn Valley Water, Grampians Water, Melbourne Water Corporation, South East Water Limited and Western Water. We are also grateful to Susie Wood (Cawthron Institute, New Zealand) and Felicity Roddick (RMIT University) for their provision of positive (culture) and negative control material. Thanks are also offered to Raechel Littman, Gareth Roezler (WQRA), Kumar Eliener (ALS Scoresby), Nole Miles (Melbourne Water Corporation) and Aaron Ward (University of Melbourne).