• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.41 no.2
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• pp.264-274
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• 2008

Seasonal variations of cyanobacterial toxins (microcystins) in Yeongehun reservoir were studied from March to December, 2007. High level of microcystins production was shown during the late autumn and winter seasons. Total microcystins concentration increased sharply when the dominant species changed from Anabaena sp. to Microcystis aeruginosa. Microcystins-RR and -YR were the main components of the microcystins, whereas microcystin-LR was detected in small quantities. Especially, large amounts of microcystin-LR were detected when standing crops of M. aeruginosa increased exponentially. Total microcystins concentration showed a negative correlation with water temperature. However, total microcystins were lowly correlated with other environmental factors except for water temperature. As a result, this study clearly demonstrated that M. aeruginosa was the main producer of microcystins in Yeongchun reservoir.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.30-35
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• 1999

It is very difficult to analyze microcystins quantitatively in shellfish, since microcystins in shellfish easily combine with other proteins. Therefore, in this study, we produced 2-methyl-3-methoxy-4-phenylbutyric acid (MMPB) by separating Adda, the most characteristic part of microcystins, from the complexes of proteins and microcystins. MMPB was esterified and used for the quantitative analysis of microcystins in shellfish using GC.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.513-520
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• 2006

The effect of chlorination on disinfection byproducts (DBPs) production from bloom-forming freshwater algae including 7 strains of cyanobacteria and 6 strains of diatoms was investigated. The release and degradation of hepatotoxin (microcystins) by the chlorination on Microcystis under differential condition of the chlorination time and dose were also investigated. The disinfection byproducts formation potentials (DBPFP) of cyanobacterial species and diatoms were ranged from 0.017 to $0.070{\mu}mol\;DBPs/mg$ C and from 0.129 to $0.708{\mu}mol\;DBPs/mg$ C respectively. Among three major groups of DBPs, haloacetonitrils (HANs) was major product in most test strains except Aphanizomenon sp. and Oscillatoria sp. Haloacetic acids (HAAs) was less than 5 % of total DBPs. Chloroform and dichloroacetonitril (DCAN) were dominant compounds in trihalomethanes (THMs) and HANs respectively. After 4 hours chlorination of toxic Microcystis aeruginosa under the dose range of 0.5 to $10mg\;Cl_2/L$, the concentration of intracellular microcystins decreased, but dissolved dissolved microcystins concentration increased with the treatment of more than $3mg\;Cl_2/L$. However the total amount of microcystins was almost constant even at $10mg\;Cl_2/L$ of chlorination. To conclude, our results indicate that the chlorination causes algal cell lysis and release of intracellular microcystins in the intact form to surrounding waters.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.400-408
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• 2010

The growth and microcystins production characteristics of three species of Microcystis (M. aeruginosa, M. ichthyoblabe, M. viridis) isolated from Yeongchun dam and Ankei dam in Kyungpook Province, South Korea were investigated at temperatures of $15{\sim}35^{\circ}C$ and light intensities of $35{\sim}180\;{\mu}mol\;m^{-2}\;s^{-1}$. All of the three species exhibited the highest growth rates (${\mu}_{max}$) over the $30^{\circ}C$. The maximum growth rates of M. aeruginosa and M. ichthyoblabe was observed at $70\;{\mu}mol\;m^{-2}\;s^{-1}$, while M. viridis showed maximum growth rate at $35\;{\mu}mol\;m^{-2}\;s^{-1}$. The maximum production of total microcystins was observed at $20^{\circ}C$, and the production of microcystins decreased according as temperature increase. The highest microcystins production of M. aeruginosa, M. ichthyoblabe and M. viridis observed at light intensities of $120\;{\mu}mol\;m^{-2}\;s^{-1}$, $70\;{\mu}mol\;m^{-2}\;s^{-1}$ and $35\;{\mu}mol\;m^{-2}\;s^{-1}$, respectively. The concentration of microcyst in production and microcystin types of three species according to temperatures and light intensities showed clear difference between the species.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.597-605
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• 2009

Algae bloom occurred in reservoir in summer can cause taste and odor in water and disturb the flocculation and sedimentation processes in water treatment plant and cause sand filter plugging. It was also reported that microcystins, anatoxin and saxitoxin released from cyanobacteria had acute toxic effects on liver and nervous system. For these reasons, many advanced countries inclusive of WHO set the guideline for these toxins and cyanotoxins have been managed with regular monitoring in Korea as well. However, complex sample preparation steps such as a solid phase extraction (SPE) and derivatization are required with an existing analysis method with HPLC. We needed to improve an analysis method for low extraction efficiency and long sample preparation time. In this study, we have established a new LC/MS/MS method which can simultaneously determine 6 cyanotoxins (Microcystins-LR, Microcystins-RR, Microcystins-YR, Anatoxin-a, Saxitoxin, Neosaxitoxin) with only simple filtration step. When $75{\mu}L$ filterated sample was injected onto the LC-MS/MS, the recovery ranged from 86% to 112% and the MDL was $0.025{\sim}0.581{\mu}g/L$. We can make the MDL be lower than the guideline ($1{\sim}3{\mu}g/L$) of advanced countries with simple preparation.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.5 no.6
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• pp.407-412
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• 2000

Environmental biosensors and related techniques for monitoring organochlorines, endocrine disrupting chemicals and cyanobacterial toxins are described. The practical requirements for an ideal environmental biosensor are analyzed. Specific case studies for environmental applications are reported for triazines, chlorinated phenols, PCBs, microcystins, and endocrine disrupting chemicals. A new promising approach is reported for microcystins and alkylphenols that utilize electrooptical detection.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.49 no.2
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• pp.67-79
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• 2016

Cyanotoxins in aquatic ecosystems have been investigated by many researchers worldwide. Cyanotoxins can be classified according to toxicity as neurotoxins (anatoxin-a, anatoxin-a(s), saxitoxins) or hepatotoxins (microcystins, nodularin, cylindrospermopsin). Microcystins are generally present within cyanobacterial cells and are released by damage to the cell membrane. Cyanotoxins have been reported to cause adverse effects and to accumulate in aquatic organisms in lakes, rivers and oceans. Possible pathways of microcystins in Lake Suwa, Japan, have been investigated from five perspectives: production, adsorption, physiochemical decomposition, bioaccumulation and biodegradation. In this study, temporal variability in microcystins in Lake Suwa were investigated over 25 years (1991~2015). In nature, microcystins are removed by biodegradation of microorganisms and/or feeding of predators. However, during water treatment, the use of copper sulfate to remove algal cells causes extraction of a mess of microcystins. Cyanotoxins are removed by physical, chemical and biological methods, and the reduction of nutrients inflow is a basic method to prevent cyanobacterial bloom formation. However, this method is not effective for eutrophic lakes because nutrients are already present. The presence of a cyanotoxins can be a potential threat and therefore must be considered during water treatment. A complete understanding of the mechanism of cyanotoxins degradation in the ecosystem requires more intensive study, including a quantitative enumeration of cyanotoxin degrading microbes. This should be done in conjunction with an investigation of the microbial ecological mechanism of cyanobacteria degradation.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.22-30
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• 2011

This study was purposed to develop an effective LC/MS/MS method for simultaneously determining five pre-treated cyanotoxins (anatoxin-a, microcystins-RR, -YR, -LR and -LA) of cyanobacteria blooms. Cyanobacterial bloom samples were collected from 11 major lakes and three downstream areas of river around Korea during 2005~2009. Cyanotoxins were identified in 38 samples from the lakes. The validity of the method was evaluated and the recovery rates were found ranging from 83~87%. The MDL turned out to be $0.046\;{\mu}g\;L^{-1}$ for anatoxin-a and $0.066\;{\mu}g\;L^{-1}$ for microcystins (RR, YR, LR and LA), which indicates that the method has high sensitivity and accuracy. The most dominant genus of the cyanobacterial blooms was Microcystis, which accounted for 71% of the analysed samples. Microcystis also contained the largest amount of microcystins ($398.5\;{\mu}g\;gDW^{-1}$) among the analyzed cyanobacteria. The analysis of the five cyanotoxins showed that anatoxin-a ranged between $0{\sim}41.833\;{\mu}g\;gDW^{-1}$ and microcystins ranged between $6.311{\sim}2,148.786\;{\mu}g\;gDW^{-1}$. Among the microcystins, micocystin-RR took up 58.3%, the largest portion. Anatoxin-a was found to account for 77.8% of the samples. This study has its significance in that it allowed the establishment of toxin criteria appropriate for the Korean water systems. Further studies may be necessary to conduct for improving water treatment methods.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.149-155
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• 2001

A new analytical method of cyanobacterial toxins, i, e, microcysins was deveeloped using supercritical fluid extraction(SFE). The microcystins mcluded in the study are sparsely soluble in neat supercritical fluid CO$_2$ However, the microcystins were successfully extracted with a temary mixture(90% CO$_2$,9.0% methanol 1.0% water) at 40$^{\circ}$C and 250 atm. The SFE method developed in this study has several advantages over solid-phase extraction(SPE) sample preparation for the analysis of microcystins. Sample handling steps are minimized thus reducing possible losses of analytes and saving analysis time. No clean-up steps are employed in this SFE method. Althouhgh many methods have been described for microcystim RR and LR, the method using solid-phase extraction with ODS cartridges is the most commonly used. However, the adsorbing power of ODS caridges for microcystins is weak, so we have attempted to use a more polar CN cartridge, to increase the adsorbing power for microcystins. Lyophilized cells(100mg) were wxtracted with 5% (v/v) acetic acid. The extract was centrifuged and then the supernatant was applied to a CN cartridge. The cartridge which contained microcystins was rinsed with 5 ml of water and 5 ml of 0.5 M acetic acid. followed by 5 ml of 5% acetonitrile in water , and were determined by HPLC. Better recoveries and chromatogram were observed than with ODS cartridge.

• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.524-531
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• 2001

Micro-HPLC/IS/MS after solid phase extraction has been employed to enhance the accu-racy in the determination of toxic microcystins, such as microcystin-LR, -YR and -RR. The absorbance at 238 nm in HPLC/UV and characteristic spectra of 135 m/z and $[M+H]^+$ m/z in MS have been widely monitored to identify those microcystin-LR, -YR and -RR. In this study, new lines at 507 m/z for LR, 520 m/z for RR and 532 m/z for YR have been additionally detected in the micro-HPLC/IS/MS spectrum, corresponding to double charge. The micro-HPLC/IS/MS methodology has been applied to investigate the presence of the toxic microcystins in Taecheong lake.