Harmful cyanobacterial blooms are a major threat to water quality and human health. Adequate risk assessment is thus required, which relies strongly on comprehensive monitoring. Here, we tested novel multi-probe RNA chips developed in the European project, μAqua, to determine the abundance of harmful cyanobacterial species and expression of selected toxin genes in six Dutch lakes. All of the targeted cyanobacterial genera, except for Planktothrix, were detected using the microarray, with predominance of Dolichospermum and Microcystis signals, of which the former was found across all sites and detected by the probes for Anabaena where it was formerly placed. These were confirmed by microscopic cell counts at three sites, whereas at the other sites, microscopic cell counts were lower. Probe signals of Microcystis showed larger variation across sites but also matched microscopic counts for three sites. At the other sites, microscopic counts were distinctly higher. We detected anatoxin-a in the water at all sites, but unfortunately no genes for this toxin were on this generation of the toxin array. For microcystins, we found none or low concentrations in the water, despite high population densities of putative microcystin producers (i.e. Microcystis, Dolichospermum). The described method requires further testing with a wider range of cyanobacterial communities and toxin concentrations before implementation into routine cyanobacterial risk assessment. Yet, our results demonstrate a great potential for applying multi-probe RNA chips for species as well as toxins to eutrophic waters with high cyanobacterial densities as a routine monitoring tool and as a predictive tool for toxin potential.

有害的蓝藻繁殖是对水质和人类健康的重大威胁。因此，需要进行充分的风险评估，这在很大程度上取决于全面的监控。在这里，我们测试了在欧洲项目μAqua中开发的新型多探针RNA芯片，以确定六种荷兰湖泊中有害蓝藻物种的丰富程度以及所选毒素基因的表达。所有目标蓝藻属，除了的Planktothrix，使用该芯片检测，用的优势Dolichospermum和微囊信号，其中前者被发现在所有的网站，并通过该探针检测鱼腥它原先放置的位置。这些通过三个位置的微观细胞计数得到证实，而在其他位置，微观细胞计数更低。微囊藻的探针信号在各个位点上显示出较大的变化，但在三个位点上也具有匹配的显微计数。在其他站点，显微镜计数明显更高。我们在所有位置的水中均检测到了毒素A，但不幸的是，这一代毒素阵列上都没有这种毒素的基因。对于微囊藻毒素，尽管推定的微囊藻毒素生产者的人口密度很高（例如，微囊藻，Dolichospermum），但我们在水中未发现或存在低浓度的微囊藻毒素。）。所描述的方法需要在进行常规的蓝细菌风险评估之前，用更广泛的蓝细菌群落和毒素浓度进行进一步测试。然而，我们的结果证明了将多探针RNA芯片应用于具有高蓝细菌密度的富营养水域物种和毒素作为常规监测工具和毒素潜力预测工具的巨大潜力。