June 19th, Dr. Xiaozhen Mou from Kent State University visited IOCAS and gave the presentation on “Microbial-mediated cyanotoxin degradation during cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms”.

Dr. Mou studies on microbial molecular ecology in aquatic environment. She researches the microbial-involved biogeochemistry process of different lakes, rivers and coast. In her presentation, she introduced the harmful algal blooms in the Great Lakes and how the government managed the tough problem; analyzed the function of microorganisms in degrading microcystins; and explained the importance of metagenomics and metatranscriptomics in studies of algal toxin decomposition.After the presentation, researchers from IOCAS discussed with Dr. Mou on the subject of harmful algal blooms, the way to handle this serious environmental problem with bacteria, and the genomic application.

Current Research in Mou lab focuses on linking bacterial phylogeny with their metabolic functions in natural aquatic environments. This direct linkage is important to understand fundamental questions in an ecological/environmental context, such as the role of bacteria in biogeochemical cycling of essential nutrients, e.g., carbon, nitrogen and sulfur. Experimental matagenomics coupled with bioinformatics are employed as the core approach to simultaneously identify the taxonomic diversity, genetic capability, and metabolic activity of selected taxonomic and functional groups of aquatic bacteria. Other advanced molecular biology techniques, such as T-RFLP, DGGE, qPCR, RT-PCR, CARD-FISH, and flow cytometry (FACS), and cultivation-based studies, such as whole genome micorarray, are also regularly employed.