Bacterial toxin blinds algae

Green algae almost completely lose their colour when the deadly bacteria have been added to them. Image: Jens Meyer (University of Jena) - University of Jena researchers have discovered a bacterial toxin that destroys the colour pigments in the eyespot of the single-cell green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. Together with another toxic substance, the bacteria of the species Pseudomonas protegens not only disorientate and immobilise the green algae, but condemn them to a certain death. The researchers detected the toxin, called "protegencin", with the help of Raman spectroscopy and natural product research. They have published the results of their study in the current issue of the journal "PNAS" (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas. The researchers led by the professor for General Botany of the University of Jena, Maria Mittag, already knew from earlier studies that an encounter with Pseudomonas protegens bacteria did not do the green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii any good at all. Now the deadly toxin has been identified by Prof. Mittag and doctoral candidate Vivien Hotter, together with the teams led by Prof. Jürgen Popp (Institute for Physical Chemistry of the University of Jena and Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology) and Prof. Christian Hertweck (Institute of Microbiology of the University of Jena and Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology - Hans Knöll Institute), as well as Prof. Severin Sasso (Leipzig University).