The IQS environmental laboratory and the company Phytolab Control have established a partnership to offer joint service to companies to carry out analysis to identify the species of cyanobacteria present in surface water and drinking water,as well as the quantification of the cyanotoxins that are produced, using advanced liquid chromatography techniques coupled with state-of-the-art mass spectrometry. The objective of this collaboration is to offer an analytical method that not only guarantees compliance with Spanish Royal Decree 3/2023 on the establishment of the technical and sanitary criteria for drinking water quality, control, and supply (where the limit of the presence of microcystin-LR in drinking water is established), but also enables the quantification of other families of these toxins produced by different cyanobacteria.
Cyanobacteria blooms are increasingly common around the world in all types of bodies of water, including rivers, ponds, lakes, wetlands, and freshwater reservoirs, as well as saltwater seas and oceans. This growth is mainly due to two factors derived from anthropogenic activities: the increase in the global temperature of the planet, caused by the greenhouse effect generated by increasing carbon dioxide emissions derived from human activities, and the eutrophication of water due to the increase in nutrients such as phosphates, nitrates, and sulphates, both from the excessive use of fertilizers in agricultural activities as well as from uncontrolled wastewater discharge or deficient treatment.
These cyanobacteria blooms have harmful effects on the ecosystems in which they are found. On the one hand, they can generate hypoxic and anoxic conditions (reduction and absence of dissolved oxygen in water, respectively) that become lethal to local aquatic fauna and flora. On the other hand, cyanobacteria can generate various families of biotoxins called cyanotoxins, which are highly toxic not only to aquatic species, but also to the health of terrestrial mammals that might drink water from contaminated sources, not to mention human health as well.
The most studied families of cyanotoxins are microcystins – hepatotoxic – and anatoxins, which are potent neurotoxins. Although these two families are the most studied and most easily detected in freshwater, there are many more families of metabolites produced by cyanobacteria that are highly toxic to aquatic ecosystems. Discovering what these unknown toxins are and what their chemical structure is using non-targeted analysis methods is an extremely complex task that can only be carried out using advanced mass spectrometry techniques.
Partnership between IQS and Phytolab Control
Phytolab Control is a company that specializes in carrying out biological analysis of organisms in the natural environment and environmental consulting in the surface aquatic environment, led by the biologist Pepita Nolla i Querol. The partnership with IQS stems from the need to jointly offer a unique service to third parties for the detection, identification, and quantification of cyanobacteria and cyanotoxins in which, on the one hand, Phytolab Control’s experience in the taxonomic analysis of cyanobacteria and microalgae present in surface water samples, through optical microcopying techniques, converge. On the other hand, and under the leadership of Dr Xavier Ortiz Almirall, IQS has developed and validated its own method for the analysis of different families of cyanotoxins and related contaminants, especially microcystins.
This analysis to detect and characterize cyanotoxins is carried out on a chromatography instrument coupled to a state-of-the-art triple quadrupole mass spectrometer, the Waters Xevo TQ-XS model recently acquired by IQS, which makes it possible to work in both liquid and gas chromatography applications.
In the words of Pepita Nolla i Querol, biologist and director of Pyhtolab Control, “this partnership with IQS is a great opportunity to combine both types of analytics and gain more specific knowledge of bloom development and cyanotoxin synthesis. Relating the cyanotoxin to the organism that produces it is key to the early detection and control of cyanobacteria blooms in aquatic ecosystems.”
For his part, Dr Xavier Ortiz adds that “with the IQS-Phytolab Control partnership, we can offer clients a unique and comprehensive service by combining Ms Nolla’s experience in the field of identifying cyanobacterial species with the most advanced analytical methods to analyse cyanotoxins.” These advanced instrumental methods are the same ones used by the Ministry of the Environment of Ontario (Canada), which Dr Ortiz developed during his prior experience as a research scientist with this entity.
For more information, please contact Dr Sejin Oh, IQS Tech Transfer Business Developer, at sejin.oh@iqs.url.edu.
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