Evaluation of the MIB-producing potential based on real-time qPCR in drinking water reservoirs


Abstract

Cyanobacteria release 2-methylisoborneol (MIB) as a secondary metabolite. Here, we propose a reverse tran- scription quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR) based method to evaluate the MIB-producing potential in source water by detecting the MIB-synthesis gene (mic). A MIBQSF/R primer set was designed based on 35 mic gene sequences obtained from 12 pure-cultured MIB-producing strains and 23 sequences from the NCBI database. This primer set successfully identified all known 43 MIB-producing cyanobacterial strains (12 from this study and 31 from the NCBI database), belonging to different genera, showing a wider coverage than previous primer sets. The efficiency of the method was proved by the amplification efficiency (E = 91.23%), $R^2$ of the standard curve (0.999), the limit of detection (LOD, 5.7 fg μL$^{−1}$), and the limit of quantification (LOQ, $1.86\times 10^4$ gene copies μL$^{−1}$). Further, the method was verified by the correlation between the mic gene abundance and MIB concen- tration 50 field samples from different reservoirs ($R^2 = 0.614$, p < 0.001) and one reservoir ($R^2 = 0.752$, p < 0.001), suggesting its potential as an alternative warning tool to evaluate the risk of MIB problems in source water.

Publication
In Environmental Research
Tengxin Cao
Tengxin Cao
Ph. D. Student
Jinping Lu
Jinping Lu
Ph. D. Student
Ming Su
Ming Su
Associate Professor of Environmental Engneering

My research interest is water quality problems in drinking water bodies, with a focus on harmful algal blooms and associated taste & odor problems.

Min Yang
Min Yang
Professor of Environmental Engneering