Publications by authors named "T A Edge"
Article Synopsis
- Cyanobacteria, a type of blue-green algae, can produce harmful toxins under nutrient-rich conditions, leading to harmful algal blooms (cHABs) that negatively affect water quality and have economic impacts.
- This research examined microcystin levels and cyanotoxin genes in three locations in the Canadian Great Lakes to better understand how cHABs form and the dynamics of cyanobacterial populations.
- The results showed significant regional differences in cyanobacterial communities and toxin production, pointing to the need for advanced monitoring and management strategies tailored to specific environments.
Background: Recreational water activities at beaches are popular among Canadians. However, these activities can increase the risk of recreational water illnesses (RWI) among beachgoers. Few studies have been conducted in Canada to determine the risk of these illnesses.
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- Harmful algal blooms (HABs) contribute to water eutrophication, affecting recreational lake usability, prompting an analysis of various detection methods for cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins in the Great Lakes region.
- DNA sequencing methods effectively differentiated between bloom and non-bloom samples, revealing a higher presence of metabolic genes linked to cyanobacteria in bloom areas, though toxin genes were less identifiable.
- Traditional techniques like qPCR and ELISA showed higher microcystin levels in bloom sites, indicating that not all blooms produce this toxin, thus requiring comprehensive monitoring to fully assess water quality.
Escherichia coli serves as a proxy indicator of fecal contamination in aquatic ecosystems. However, its identification using traditional culturing methods can take up to 24 h. The application of DNA markers, such as conserved signature proteins (CSPs) genes (unique to all species/strains of a specific taxon), can form the foundation for novel polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests that unambiguously identify and detect targeted bacterial taxa of interest.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Fecal bacterial densities are proxy indicators of beach water quality, and beach posting decisions are made based on Beach Action Value (BAV) exceedances for a beach. However, these traditional beach monitoring methods do not reflect the full extent of microbial water quality changes associated with BAV exceedances at recreational beaches (including harmful cyanobacteria). This proof of concept study evaluates the potential of metagenomics for comprehensively assessing bacterial community changes associated with BAV exceedances compared to non-exceedances for two urban beaches and their adjacent river water sources.
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