The Evaluation of a New ELISA-Based Kit for Total Microcystins as an Early Detection Tool for Microcystin Blooms in Source Waters and Its Application State-Wide to Oregon Source and Finished Drinking Waters.

Due to cyanobacterial toxin (cyanotoxin) contamination issues in 2018, the city of Salem, Oregon, issued a 33-day do-not-drink advisory for vulnerable people among the 200,000 residents. After the incident, the state of Oregon put in place drinking water rules to require the routine testing of raw water, as well as finished water, in cases where the raw water cyanotoxin concentrations exceeded trigger values. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) total microcystins drinking water health advisory level (HAL) for small children is 0.

Use of High-Resolution Pressure Nephelometry To Measure Gas Vesicle Collapse as a Means of Determining Growth and Turgor Changes in Planktonic Cyanobacteria.

Previous work has demonstrated that the physical properties of intracellular bacterial gas vesicles (GVs) can be analyzed using pressure nephelometry. In analyzing the buoyant state of GV-containing cyanobacteria, hydrostatic pressure within a sample cell is increased in a stepwise manner, where the concomitant collapse of GVs due to pressure and the resultant decrease in suspended cells are detected by changes in nephelometric scattering. As the relative pressure at which GVs collapse is a function of turgor pressure and cellular osmotic gradients, pressure nephelometry is a powerful tool for assaying changes in metabolism that affect turgor, such as photosynthetic and osmoregulatory processes.