Supramolecular regulators of water bloom

Abstract

Climatic changes and anthropogenic environmen tal impacts in the first decade of the 21st century have induced long lasting blooms (changes in water color ing) in inland water bodies across Russia, which are associated with destruction of the biotic complex of water self purification and are hazardous to the health and economic activity of people. Many ponds, lakes, and reservoirs are becoming hypereutrophic water bodies (from the Greek eutrophia, "good nutrition") by the concentrations of chlorophyll and phytoplank ton biomass and primary production. In such water bodies, cyanobacteria, or blue green algae, as they were called before, proliferate in an avalanche like manner and their lysis (death) produces many highly poisonous toxins [1]. This proliferation threatens the loss of many freshwater resources in Russia.Thus, interest in the problem of water blooms remains urgent. The main abiotic (the content of bio genic elements, water transparency, illuminance, and depth) and algological (the chlorophyll concentra tion, phytoplankton counts and biomass, and the presence of cyanobacterial toxins) indicators of water bodies are analyzed on a regular basis [2]. Limnolo gists attach great importance to studies of cause-effect relationships in the emergence and development of toxic water blooms. In particular, it has been proven convincingly that the amino acid component of bot tom sediments plays a leading role in water blooming [3]. To identify toxigenic cyanobacteria, researchers started to apply the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with primers for the genes responsible for the synthesis of toxins. Studies into vegetative cyanobacterial cells helped reveal their principal structural similarity with the cells of gram negative eubacteria and record the biggest gene [(1.6-8.6) × 10 9 Da] found in prokaryotes [4]. However, the overall picture has been lost amid individual achievements, and, as a result, an apparent deadlock is seen in the attempts to create effective means and methods for preventing negative conse quences of this natural phenomenon [5]. There is no doubt that at present we need to change the research paradigm in this field. It is not excluded that, if we consider the transition from nonliving matter to living matter as a unified process of transformations in supramolecular systems, we will manage to overcome the crisis in solving the problem of water blooms.Cyanobacteria are considered not only a transi tional link between microorganisms and plants; the study of their vital regularities interfaces the living and the nonliving. Cyanobacteria evolved, presumably, more than 3.5 billion years ago in an anaerobic envi ronment in conditions of aggressive ultraviolet radia tion and sharp temperature variances, surrounded by mineral matter. Therefore, bioinert systems had to be developed to support the vital activity of ancient cyanobacteria and other organisms and provide for the interaction of inorganic and organic substances. An important role in their formation was played by the quasi tetrahedral lattice o...