Discovery of new tool to identify harmful blue-green algae
Written by Adeel Abbas
Researchers at the University of Birmingham in England and Culture Collection of Algae & Protozoa (CCAP), based out Scottish Association for Marine Science have developed a new way to detect early signs that harmful blue-green algae may be blooming.
The technique will help us understand when these ecologically important but sometimes pesky species are most likely going on their next spreading spree so we can better prepare ourselves before it happens!
Algal blooms can be a tricky thing to deal with. They’re not always easy, and in some cases may only become problematic when there are large numbers of harmful algae species present – but at least then they’ll need preventive measures before it gets too bad!
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New research from the University of Birmingham in England has found a new way to identify algae with high specificity and speed. Using mass spectrometry, researchers were able to get highly-specific ‘fingerprints’ that corresponded specifically for each species within cyanobacteria which is important because it’s been difficult until now due to their unique protein features comparing them across different types or classes of phytoplankton
The output makes more interesting use cases rather than just describing what was done without an explanation on how this could be useful.
New research from Dr. Aneika Leney and colleagues at the University of Florida is a promising first step towards developing useful tools that can be used to keep harmful blue-green algae blooms at bay while leaving non-toxic species untargeted.
Future work will involve creating an extensive database containing spectral fingerprints for all known cyanobacteria species so when we find their match in our collection there’s no need to waste time testing them individually–we just get right down onto business identifying what kind it might actually be!
Further information:
Jaspreet K. Sound et al, Rapid Cyanobacteria Species Identification with High Sensitivity Using Native Mass Spectrometry, Analytical Chemistry (2021). DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.1c03412