TY - JOUR A1 - Hu, Chenlin A1 - Ludsin, Stuart A. A1 - Martin, Jay F. A1 - Dittmann, Elke A1 - Lee, Jiyoung T1 - Mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs)-producing Microcystis in Lake Erie BT - Development of a qPCR assay and insight into its ecology JF - Harmful algae N2 - Mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs) are UV-absorbing metabolites found in cyanobacteria. While their protective role from UV in Microcystis has been studied in a laboratory setting, a full understanding of the ecology of MAA-producing versus non-MAA-producing Microcystis in natural environments is lacking. This study presents a new tool for quantifying MAA-producing Microcystis and applies it to obtain insight into the dynamics of MAA-producing and non-MAA-producing Microcystis in Lake Erie. This study first developed a sensitive, specific TaqMan real-time PCR assay that targets MAA synthetase gene C (mysC) of Microcystis (quantitative range: 1.7 × 101 to 1.7 × 107 copies/assay). Using this assay, Microcystis was quantified with a MAA-producing genotype (mysC+) in water samples (n = 96) collected during March-November 2013 from 21 Lake Erie sites (undetectable − 8.4 × 106 copies/ml). The mysC+ genotype comprised 0.3–37.8% of the Microcystis population in Lake Erie during the study period. The proportion of the mysC+ genotype during high solar UV irradiation periods (mean = 18.8%) was significantly higher than that during lower UV periods (mean = 9.7%). Among the MAAs, shinorine (major) and porphyra (minor) were detected with HPLC-PDA-MS/MS from the Microcystis isolates and water samples. However, no significant difference in the MAA concentrations existed between higher and lower solar UV periods when the MAA concentrations were normalized with Microcystis mysC abundance. Collectively, this study’s findings suggest that the MAA-producing Microcystis are present in Lake Erie, and they may be ecologically advantageous under high UV conditions, but not to the point that they exclusively predominate over the non-MAA-producers. KW - Shinorine KW - Porphyra KW - UV irradiation KW - Sunscreen KW - Eutrophication KW - Harmful algal bloom Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hal.2018.05.010 SN - 1568-9883 SN - 1878-1470 VL - 77 SP - 1 EP - 10 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Jay, Raphael M. A1 - Norell, Jesper A1 - Eckert, Sebastian A1 - Hantschmann, Markus A1 - Beye, Martin A1 - Kennedy, Brian A1 - Quevedo, Wilson A1 - Schlotter, William F. A1 - Dakovski, Georgi L. A1 - Minitti, Michael P. A1 - Hoffmann, Matthias C. A1 - Mitra, Ankush A1 - Moeller, Stefan P. A1 - Nordlund, Dennis A1 - Zhang, Wenkai A1 - Liang, Huiyang W. A1 - Kunnus, Kristian A1 - Kubicek, Katharina A1 - Techert, Simone A. A1 - Lundberg, Marcus A1 - Wernet, Philippe A1 - Gaffney, Kelly A1 - Odelius, Michael A1 - Föhlisch, Alexander T1 - Disentangling Transient Charge Density and Metal-Ligand Covalency in Photoexcited Ferricyanide with Femtosecond Resonant Inelastic Soft X-ray Scattering JF - The journal of physical chemistry letters N2 - Soft X-ray spectroscopies are ideal probes of the local valence electronic structure of photocatalytically active metal sites. Here, we apply the selectivity of time resolved resonant inelastic X-ray scattering at the iron L-edge to the transient charge distribution of an optically excited charge-transfer state in aqueous ferricyanide. Through comparison to steady-state spectra and quantum chemical calculations, the coupled effects of valence-shell closing and ligand-hole creation are experimentally and theoretically disentangled and described in terms of orbital occupancy, metal-ligand covalency, and ligand field splitting, thereby extending established steady-state concepts to the excited-state domain. pi-Back-donation is found to be mainly determined by the metal site occupation, whereas the ligand hole instead influences sigma-donation. Our results demonstrate how ultrafast resonant inelastic X-ray scattering can help characterize local charge distributions around catalytic metal centers in short-lived charge-transfer excited states, as a step toward future rationalization and tailoring of photocatalytic capabilities of transition-metal complexes. Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.8b01429 SN - 1948-7185 VL - 9 IS - 12 SP - 3538 EP - 3543 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington ER -