{"doi":"10.1128/aem.00417-15","title":"High Specificity of a Quantitative PCR Assay Targeting a Saxitoxin Gene for Monitoring Toxic Algae Associated with Paralytic Shellfish Toxins in the Yellow Sea","abstract":"<jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title>\n          <jats:p>\n            The identification of core genes involved in the biosynthesis of saxitoxin (STX) offers a great opportunity to detect toxic algae associated with paralytic shellfish toxins (PST). In the Yellow Sea (YS) in China, both toxic and nontoxic\n            <jats:named-content content-type=\"genus-species\">Alexandrium</jats:named-content>\n            species are present, which makes it a difficult issue to specifically monitor PST-producing toxic algae. In this study, a quantitative PCR (qPCR) assay targeting\n            <jats:italic>sxtA4</jats:italic>\n            , a domain in the\n            <jats:italic>sxt</jats:italic>\n            gene cluster that encodes a unique enzyme involved in STX biosynthesis, was applied to analyze samples collected from the YS in spring of 2012. The abundance of two toxic species within the\n            <jats:named-content content-type=\"genus-species\">Alexandrium tamarense</jats:named-content>\n            species complex, i.e.,\n            <jats:named-content content-type=\"genus-species\">A. fundyense</jats:named-content>\n            and\n            <jats:named-content content-type=\"genus-species\">A. pacificum</jats:named-content>\n            , was also determined with TaqMan-based qPCR assays, and PSTs in net-concentrated phytoplankton samples were analyzed with high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with a fluorescence detector. It was found that the distribution of the\n            <jats:italic>sxtA4</jats:italic>\n            gene in the YS was consistent with the toxic algae and PSTs, and the quantitation results of\n            <jats:italic>sxtA4</jats:italic>\n            correlated well with the abundance of the two toxic species (\n            <jats:italic>r</jats:italic>\n            = 0.857). These results suggested that the two toxic species were major PST producers during the sampling season and that\n            <jats:italic>sxtA</jats:italic>\n            -based qPCR is a promising method to detect toxic algae associated with PSTs in the YS. The correlation between PST levels and\n            <jats:italic>sxtA</jats:italic>\n            -based qPCR results, however, was less significant (\n            <jats:italic>r</jats:italic>\n            = 0.552), implying that\n            <jats:italic>sxtA</jats:italic>\n            -based qPCR is not accurate enough to reflect the toxicity of PST-producing toxic algae. The combination of an\n            <jats:italic>sxtA</jats:italic>\n            -based qPCR assay and chemical means might be a promising method for monitoring toxic algal blooms.\n          </jats:p>","journal":"Applied and Environmental Microbiology","year":2015,"id":39347,"datarank":1.2947607895417041,"base_score":3.58351893845611,"endowment":3.58351893845611,"self_citation_contribution":0.5375278407684165,"citation_network_contribution":0.7572329487732877,"self_endowment_contribution":0.5375278407684165,"citer_contribution":0.7572329487732877,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":35,"citer_count":27,"citers_with_citation_signal":22,"citers_with_endowment":22,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":193422,"name":"Ren-Cheng Yu","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":193423,"name":"Shauna A. Murray","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":193424,"name":"Jian-Hua Chen","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":193425,"name":"Zhen-Jun Kang","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":193426,"name":"Qing-Chun Zhang","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":193427,"name":"Fan-Zhou Kong","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":193428,"name":"Ming-Jiang Zhou","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":6319,"name":"Yan Gao","orcid":"0000-0003-3814-5750","position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"base_score":3.58351893845611,"endowment":3.58351893845611,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"26231652","pmcid":"PMC4579458","openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W2195008939","authors":[],"funders":[],"total_grants":0,"fwci":2.326,"citation_percentile":0.86810748,"influential_citations":1,"citation_trend":[{"year":2016,"count":5},{"year":2018,"count":3},{"year":2019,"count":5},{"year":2020,"count":3},{"year":2021,"count":6},{"year":2022,"count":1},{"year":2023,"count":3},{"year":2024,"count":5},{"year":2025,"count":2},{"year":2026,"count":2}],"oa_status":"bronze","license":"https://journals.asm.org/non-commercial-tdm-license","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://aem.asm.org/content/aem/81/20/6973.full.pdf","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc4579458?pdf=render","host_type":"GREEN"},{"url":"https://aem.asm.org/content/aem/81/20/6973.full.pdf","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1128/AEM.00417-15","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1128/aem.00417-15","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26231652","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/4579458","host_type":"repository"}],"fields_of_study":["Marine Toxins and Detection Methods","Protist diversity and phylogeny","Microbial Community Ecology and Physiology","Medicine","Biology","Environmental Science","Biosynthetic Pathways","China","Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid","Dinoflagellida","Multigene Family","Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction","Saxitoxin","Sensitivity and Specificity","Shellfish"],"mesh_terms":["China","Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid","Dinoflagellida","Multigene Family","Saxitoxin","Sensitivity and Specificity","Shellfish","Biosynthetic Pathways","Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction"],"keywords":["Saxitoxin","Alexandrium tamarense","Paralytic shellfish poisoning","Biology","Shellfish poisoning","Algae","Shellfish","Toxin","Algal bloom","Microbiology","Botany","Phytoplankton","Aquatic animal","Ecology","Fishery"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":0,"sdg_label":"Life below water"}],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[{"name":"gen"}],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-06-11T19:19:16.329861Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}