n this post we continue our overview of the paper Biosynthesis of neurotoxin. Last time we learned that Brunson et al. (2018) had guessed that a redox enzyme was needed as part of the pathway Pseudo-nitzschia uses to synthesize domoic acid (DA). They then studied the Pseudo-nitzschia’s transcriptome to answer the questions: Which genes are upregulated under low phosphate conditions? and Of those genes, which are upregulated still more under increased pCO2 conditions? Since those are the conditions previously observed to induce DA production, genes fitting both descriptions were highly suspect to be involved in DA biosynthesis. Continue reading What Makes Algal Blooms Toxic?, Part 2

The algae in the ocean are a diverse bunch, one type of which is the silica-based diatom genus Pseudo-nitzschia. Pseudo-nitzschia species are pennate eukaryotes: long, glass microscopic pens in waters along the California coast. When algae grow in large numbers, changing the color of the seawater, they are said to bloom. Pseudo-nitzschia blooms every year, and sometimes, when it does, it produces domoic acid. Continue reading What Makes Algal Blooms Toxic?