Special Issue "Multi-Omics Study of Marine Toxins"

A special issue of Toxins (ISSN 2072-6651). This special issue belongs to the section "Marine and Freshwater Toxins".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2022.

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Olga A. Koksharova
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russian

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Marine toxins have attracted the attention of researchers due to their involvement in human intoxication. Toxins range from small molecules to high molecular weight proteins, and have unique chemical and biological features of scientific interest. Many of these substances can serve as useful research tools or molecular models for the development of new drugs and pesticides. Recent advances in omic technologies make it possible to characterize, in detail, marine toxins and their biological effects on prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. Genomics, transcritomics, proteomics and metabolomics provide new insights into the evolution, distribution, and biological effects of various marine toxins. Important environmental toxins of marine origin are: domoic acid, kainic acid, saxitoxin, tetrodotoxin, and polyester polyketides such as brevetoxin, BMAA and others.

The purpose of this Special Issue of Toxins is to discuss various aspects of marine toxins’ distribution and evolution, the effect of toxins on gene transcription, and changes in the cellular proteomes of prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms by using “omics” technologies. Genomics and transcriptomics tell us about the structure, evolution and expression of the genome, proteomics provides information about the proteins present within cells, whilst metabolomics helps to identify and quantify the diversity of metabolites and metabolic networks within an organism and between different organisms. Competition between species for resourses (nutrients, light, etc) is the main factor structuring marine planktonic communities. Marine toxins can alter ecosystem processes, including primary production and nutrient cycling. It will be interesting to discuss the allelopathic functions of marine toxins because these molecules appear to target diverse and multiple physiological pathways in competitors.

Dr. Olga A. Koksharova
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxins is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • algae
  • allelopathy
  • allelochemicals
  • cyanobacteria
  • diatoms
  • ecological succession
  • genomics
  • gene expression
  • metabolomics
  • metabolic regulation
  • proteomics
  • secondary metabolites
  • toxins
  • transcriptomics
  • marine plankton
  • jellyfish
  • sea anemone
  • marine bacteria

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

Article
Monitoring Cyanobacterial Blooms during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Campania, Italy: The Case of Lake Avernus
Toxins 2021, 13(7), 471; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins13070471 - 08 Jul 2021
Viewed by 836
Abstract
Cyanobacteria are ubiquitous photosynthetic microorganisms considered as important contributors to the formation of Earth’s atmosphere and to the process of nitrogen fixation. However, they are also frequently associated with toxic blooms, named cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (cyanoHABs). This paper reports on an unusual [...] Read more.
Cyanobacteria are ubiquitous photosynthetic microorganisms considered as important contributors to the formation of Earth’s atmosphere and to the process of nitrogen fixation. However, they are also frequently associated with toxic blooms, named cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (cyanoHABs). This paper reports on an unusual out-of-season cyanoHAB and its dynamics during the COVID-19 pandemic, in Lake Avernus, South Italy. Fast detection strategy (FDS) was used to assess this phenomenon, through the integration of satellite imagery and biomolecular investigation of the environmental samples. Data obtained unveiled a widespread Microcystis sp. bloom in February 2020 (i.e., winter season in Italy), which completely disappeared at the end of the following COVID-19 lockdown, when almost all urban activities were suspended. Due to potential harmfulness of cyanoHABs, crude extracts from the “winter bloom” were evaluated for their cytotoxicity in two different human cell lines, namely normal dermal fibroblasts (NHDF) and breast adenocarcinoma cells (MCF-7). The chloroform extract was shown to exert the highest cytotoxic activity, which has been correlated to the presence of cyanotoxins, i.e., microcystins, micropeptins, anabaenopeptins, and aeruginopeptins, detected by molecular networking analysis of liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) data. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multi-Omics Study of Marine Toxins)
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Article
β-N-Methylamino-L-Alanine (BMAA) Causes Severe Stress in Nostoc sp. PCC 7120 Cells under Diazotrophic Conditions: A Proteomic Study
Toxins 2021, 13(5), 325; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins13050325 - 30 Apr 2021
Viewed by 1168
Abstract
Non-proteinogenic neurotoxic amino acid β-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) is synthesized by cyanobacteria, diatoms, and dinoflagellates, and is known to be a causative agent of human neurodegenerative diseases. Different phytoplankton organisms’ ability to synthesize BMAA could indicate the importance of this molecule in the interactions between [...] Read more.
Non-proteinogenic neurotoxic amino acid β-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) is synthesized by cyanobacteria, diatoms, and dinoflagellates, and is known to be a causative agent of human neurodegenerative diseases. Different phytoplankton organisms’ ability to synthesize BMAA could indicate the importance of this molecule in the interactions between microalgae in nature. We were interested in the following: what kinds of mechanisms underline BMAA’s action on cyanobacterial cells in different nitrogen supply conditions. Herein, we present a proteomic analysis of filamentous cyanobacteria Nostoc sp. PCC 7120 cells that underwent BMAA treatment in diazotrophic conditions. In diazotrophic growth conditions, to survive, cyanobacteria can use only biological nitrogen fixation to obtain nitrogen for life. Note that nitrogen fixation is an energy-consuming process. In total, 1567 different proteins of Nostoc sp. PCC 7120 were identified by using LC-MS/MS spectrometry. Among them, 123 proteins belonging to different functional categories were selected—due to their notable expression differences—for further functional analysis and discussion. The presented proteomic data evidences that BMAA treatment leads to very strong (up to 80%) downregulation of α (NifD) and β (NifK) subunits of molybdenum-iron protein, which is known to be a part of nitrogenase. This enzyme is responsible for catalyzing nitrogen fixation. The genes nifD and nifK are under transcriptional control of a global nitrogen regulator NtcA. In this study, we have found that BMAA impacts in a total of 22 proteins that are under the control of NtcA. Moreover, BMAA downregulates 18 proteins that belong to photosystems I or II and light-harvesting complexes; BMAA treatment under diazotrophic conditions also downregulates five subunits of ATP synthase and enzyme NAD(P)H-quinone oxidoreductase. Therefore, we can conclude that the disbalance in energy and metabolite amounts leads to severe intracellular stress that induces the upregulation of stress-activated proteins, such as starvation-inducible DNA-binding protein, four SOS-response enzymes, and DNA repair enzymes, nine stress-response enzymes, and four proteases. The presented data provide new leads into the ecological impact of BMAA on microalgal communities that can be used in future investigations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multi-Omics Study of Marine Toxins)
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