有害藻华协调性消亡的机制

Iron-mediated programmed cell death spreads through colonies of toxic cyanobacteria Rainer Kurmayer H armful algal blooms formed by cyanobacteria—a dense overgrowth of aquatic, photosynthetic prokaryotes—have pronounced and long-term devastating effects on ecosys- tems. When these proliferative microbes exhaust local nutrients or experience unfavorable weather, they begin dying en masse. How and when these blooms collapse is of interest to researchers because the decay process consumes dissolved oxygen in the water, causing aquatic wildlife to suffocate, and can release intracel- lular toxins—processes that are relevant to developing bloom mitigation strategies (1). On page 1360 of this issue, Zhu et al. (2) describe a mecha- nism underlying the initiation and propagation of cell death among the bloom-forming cyanobacteria Microcystis aeruginosa. …