Partner 7

Current expertise :

The current expertise includes the combination of freshwater biology with molecular biology. The institute primarily performs basic research investigating the origin and maintenance of diversity and complexity in aquatic ecosystems and a number of methods have been developed to quantify specific genotypes of cyanobacteria in the field. In co-operation with partner 1, 4 the partner was the first to develop a molecular approach to distinguish between toxin producers and non-toxic genotypes of a field population to measure genetic diversity. This has been done with single colonies of the genus Microcystis and is continued for the genetic analysis of single filaments of the genus Planktothrix. Recently, the application of real-time PCR for the quantification of toxic genotypes has been developed. The laboratory is equipped with limnological equipment to sample waterbodies, HPLC-DAD to quantify cyanopeptides, and necessary molecular biological tools to quantify genotypes in water.

The Austrian partnership coordinates workpackage 2 and has its main role in the provision of quantitative data on genotype distributions in relation to environmental factors in the field. This includes the information on seasonal changes/stability in composition of genotypes in field populations and the development of dose-reponse models to predict cyanopeptide concentrations in water. As one of the key deliverables of PEPCY, a user-friendly database on cyanopeptide occurrence in surface waters used by humans throughout Europe will be provided in workpackage 2.

Project leader:

Dr. Rainer Kurmayer, group leader

Participating in the project:

Eva Schober, Gertrude Roithmayer

Address:

Austrian Academy of Sciences
Institut für Limnologie
Mondseestrasse 9
5310 Mondsee
Austria

Phone: +43-6232-312532
Fax: +43-6232-3578

e-mail: rainer.kurmayer@oeaw.ac.at

Web-site: http://www.oeaw.ac.at/limno