The boosting aquaculture sector is threatened by harmful algal blooms (HABs). Although marine microalgae play an important role in marine biological ecosystems, their uncontrolled growth and/or toxin production can cause devastating ecological losses in the form of massive fish kills, affecting the marine ecology, the economic sector, and potentially even human health [1]. Climate change could even increase the frequency, intensity, and wider geographic distribution of HABs. Some of those phycotoxins might accumulate in shellfish, while others are responsible for fish kills worldwide [2].
The first challenge is to determine the compounds responsible for the observed toxicity. In most cases, it is only known that the microalgal species are toxic to fish or other animals, but the causative agent or the mode of action behind is not elucidated yet. Furthermore, it is difficult to isolate sufficient material for structural and toxicological investigations and analytical standards are scarce. This is partly due to the fact that the chemical structures of these secondary metabolites are often very complex and chemical synthesis is out of the question. Another issue is the potency of the toxins and their low concentrations in water samples.
Within this presentation, insights, and challenges in the determination of microalgal toxins will be outlined. Furthermore, the power of mass spectrometry to solve some of the issues is demonstrated.
Literature:
[1] Hallegraeff GM, Phycologia. 1993, 32, 79-99. [2] Rasmussen SA, Andersen AJC, Andersen NG, Nielsen KF, Hansen PJ, Larsen TO, J. Nat. Prod. 2016, 79, 662–673.
