Development and field testing of a real-time PCR assay for cylindrospermopsin-producing cyanobacteria

To develop and test a real-time PCR assay to detect and quantify genes specific to Cylindrospermopsis sp. and cylindrospermopsin-producing cyanobacteria. A duplex real-time PCR assay was developed that targets a cylindrospermopsin-specific and Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii-specific DNA sequence. The C. raciborskii-specific sequence was based on the rpoC1 DNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene, whilst the cylindrospermopsin-specific sequence was selected by surveying an extensive number of potential cylindrospermopsin-producing cyanobacterial strains for genes implicated in toxin production, aoaA, aoaB and aoaC. In toxic strains, sequences of each of these three genes were always present; whilst in nontoxic strains the distribution of these sequences was patchy, resulting in what are likely to be natural deletion mutants. The real-time assay was optimized on a fixed and portable device, with results indicating that the reliable limit of detection for the assay was 100 copies per reaction or 1000 cells ml⁻¹ for both target sequences on both devices. In routine environmental samples enumerated by microscopy, the assay results were positive for all samples where C. raciborskii cells were observed at >1000 cells ml⁻¹ and negative in 15 samples where no C. raciborskii cells were observed. In field samples, the number of copies of the rpoC1 sequence more closely approximated the number of cells enumerated by microscopy, the number of copies of the pks sequence and detection of the toxin-specific sequence matched the results of toxin testing. The duplex real-time PCR assay was a sensitive and rapid method for detecting potential cylindrospermopsin-producing cyanobacteria in the laboratory or in the field. The observation of probable natural deletion mutants provides further evidence that the aoaA, aoaB and aoaC genes are involved in toxin production. This assay provides a new monitoring capability for tracking cylindrospermopsin-producing cyanobacteria that are an emerging threat to water quality.