Toxins

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Husein Almuhtaram

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Guest Editor

Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A4, Canada
Interests: cyanobacteria monitoring; cyanotoxin management in drinking water treatment plants

Dr. Arash Zamyadi

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Guest Editor

Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University, Victoria 3800, Australia
Interests: monitoring microorganisms in water and wastewater; supervised and knowledge-guided machine learning identification; cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins; advanced oxidation; hydrogen economy based advanced treatment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Harmful algal and cyanobacterial blooms adversely impact water quality when considering drinking water treatment, recreational water bodies, and aquatic ecosystems in marine and freshwater environments. Highly toxic metabolites may be produced including multiple classes of cyanotoxins that affect the liver and brain of mammals, which pose additional hazards. Monitoring and subsequent management of algal and cyanobacterial growth in water bodies as well as during drinking water treatment is therefore critical for mitigating the potential risks posed by both cells and toxins.

This Special Issue of Toxins calls for manuscripts that relate to monitoring and management of cyanotoxins as well as algae and cyanobacteria cells in the form of original research articles, communications, and reviews. Subject areas of this Special Issue may include, but are not limited to, the following:

Advances in techniques for monitoring algae and cyanobacteria remotely or in situ, including remote sensing, qPCR, fluorescence sensors, biomarkers, ELISA kits, photonic systems, aptamer-based approaches, and others;
Critical assessments of monitoring approaches incorporating data representing the ground truth;
Applications of machine learning and data analytics to improve monitoring approaches;
Development or assessment of monitoring frameworks that incorporate multiple tools;
Evaluation of physical, chemical, and biological strategies for mitigating algal and cyanobacterial blooms and cyanotoxins, including algaecides;
Evaluation of processes for the degradation of cyanotoxins during drinking water treatment including oxidation, filtration, adsorption, advanced oxidation, membranes, and others;
Analysis or treatment of less commonly studied cyanotoxins, including saxitoxin, beta methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA), and cylindrospermopsin;
Management of cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins.

Dr. Husein Almuhtaram
Dr. Arash Zamyadi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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 2700 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

management
monitoring
toxicology
analysis
cyanotoxin
water

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 3196 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Spatial and Temporal Variability of Saxitoxin-Producing Cyanobacteria in U.S. Urban Lakes

by Youchul Jeon, Ian Struewing, Kyle McIntosh, Marcie Tidd, Laura Webb, Hodon Ryu, Heath Mash and Jingrang Lu

Toxins 2024, 16(2), 70; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins16020070 - 01 Feb 2024

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Abstract

Harmful cyanobacterial blooms (HCBs) are of growing global concern due to their production of toxic compounds, which threaten ecosystems and human health. Saxitoxins (STXs), commonly known as paralytic shellfish poison, are a neurotoxic alkaloid produced by some cyanobacteria. Although many field studies indicate a widespread distribution of STX, it is understudied relative to other cyanotoxins such as microcystins (MCs). In this study, we assessed eleven U.S. urban lakes using qPCR, sxtA gene-targeting sequencing, and 16S rRNA gene sequencing to understand the spatio-temporal variations in cyanobacteria and their potential role in STX production. During the blooms, qPCR analysis confirmed the presence of the STX-encoding gene sxtA at all lakes. In particular, the abundance of the sxtA gene had a strong positive correlation with STX concentrations in Big 11 Lake in Kansas City, which was also the site with the highest quantified STX concentration. Sequencing analysis revealed that potential STX producers, such as Aphanizomenon, Dolichospermum, and Raphidiopsis, were present. Further analysis targeting amplicons of the sxtA gene identified that Aphanizomenon and/or Dolichospermum are the primary STX producer, showing a significant correlation with sxtA gene abundances and STX concentrations. In addition, Aphanizomenon was associated with environmental factors, such as conductivity, sulfate, and orthophosphate, whereas Dolichospermum was correlated with temperature and pH. Overall, the results herein enhance our understanding of the STX-producing cyanobacteria and aid in developing strategies to control HCBs. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Monitoring and Management of Algal and Cyanobacterial Blooms)

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Review

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16 pages, 805 KiB

Open AccessReview

Nanoparticles for Mitigation of Harmful Cyanobacterial Blooms

by Ilana N. Tseytlin, Anna K. Antrim and Ping Gong

Toxins 2024, 16(1), 41; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins16010041 - 12 Jan 2024

Viewed by 1192

Abstract

With the rapid advancement of nanotechnology and its widespread applications, increasing amounts of manufactured and natural nanoparticles (NPs) have been tested for their potential utilization in treating harmful cyanobacterial blooms (HCBs). NPs can be used as a photocatalyst, algaecide, adsorbent, flocculant, or coagulant. The primary mechanisms explored for NPs to mitigate HCBs include photocatalysis, metal ion-induced cytotoxicity, physical disruption of the cell membrane, light-shielding, flocculation/coagulation/sedimentation of cyanobacterial cells, and the removal of phosphorus (P) and cyanotoxins from bloom water by adsorption. As an emerging and promising chemical/physical approach for HCB mitigation, versatile NP-based technologies offer great advantages, such as being environmentally benign, cost-effective, highly efficient, recyclable, and adaptable. The challenges we face include cost reduction, scalability, and impacts on non-target species co-inhabiting in the same environment. Further efforts are required to scale up to real-world operations through developing more efficient, recoverable, reusable, and deployable NP-based lattices or materials that are adaptable to bloom events in different water bodies of different sizes, such as reservoirs, lakes, rivers, and marine environments. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Monitoring and Management of Algal and Cyanobacterial Blooms)

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