Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

PC03 Undergraduate Education

Date: Tuesday, February 13, 2001

Location: Southwest Hall

Forbes, R, C, University of Delaware Graduate College of Marine Studies REU, Lewes, USA, rachel.forbes@vanderbilt.edu

Coyne, K, , University of Delaware Graduate College of Marine Studies, Lewes, USA,

Cary, C, , University of Delaware Graduate College of Marine Studies, Lewes, USA,

DEVELOPING A MOLECULAR PROBE: THE DETECTION AND ENUMERATION OF AUREOCOCCUS ANOPHAGEFFERENS

Aureococcus anophagefferens, a microscopic pelagophyte alga, causes the harmful algal bloom brown tide. Brown tides have been occurring in estuaries along the Northeastern coastal seaboard of the United States from New York to New Jersey. Furthermore, anthropogenic effects like the transport of the organism in ships' ballast waters have caused brown tides in South Africa. Because of the small size (2-3 micrometers) and generic coccoid shape of A. anophagefferens, light microscopy does not allow for effective detection or enumeration of this organism. In this research a brown tide-specific molecular probe was developed to efficiently allow for the detection and enumeration of A. anophagefferens in environmental samples using an ABI Prism 7700 Sequence Detector. A standard curve was generated from samples spiked with known amounts of A. anophagefferens. The comparison of field samples to the standard curve permits an assessment of A. anophagefferens concentrations in cells/mL. This enumeration method was applied to samples collected from Delaware Inland Bays. These molecular tools will further be utilized in the quest to predict and manage brown tide algal blooms.

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Aquatic Sciences Meeting, Albuquerque 2001

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