Antioxidant and metabolism responses to polyphenol stress in cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa

Abstract

Three common polyphenol compounds Gallic Acid (GA), Pyrogallic Acid (PA) and Catechol (CA) are known to have allelochemical-exhibiting inhibitory effects on the growth of the cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa (M. aeruginosa). Metabolism and antioxidant responses in M. aeruginosa were investigated to elucidate the mechanism by which the three polyphenols inhibit algal growth. The inhibition effects of polyphenols were in the order of CA > PA > GA. The GA and CA exposures increased protein contents, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, catalase (CAT) activity and soluble sugar, especially for exposure to GA of 25 mg L⁻¹. Soluble sugar content increased significantly especially when exposed to CA for 72 h. When exposed to PA, protein content, and SOD and CAT activities initially increased but over longer treatment time the activities decreased, in contrast to sugar content. Our results suggest that PA exposure for longer periods of time may inhibit catabolism action, while CA exposure could induce more oxide stress than GA or PA. The overall study showed that polyphenol-induced oxidative damage might be responsible for polyphenol inhibition on M. aeruginosa growth. The increases in cellular antioxidant enzymes and soluble sugar may have been to counteract the oxidative stress.

Keywords:

• Antioxidant enzyme
• polyphenol
• M. aeruginosa
• soluble proteins
• soluble sugar

Acknowledgments

This work has been supported jointly by the National Natural Science Foundation (Grant No.51109061), the Open Fund of the State Key Laboratory of Hydrology Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering (Grant No. 2010490211), and the Outstanding Innovative Talents Project of Hohai University.