Effects of the cyanobacterial neurotoxin β-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) on the survival, mobility and reproduction of Daphnia magna

Miquel Lürling (1) , Elisabeth Faassen (2) , Justine van Eenennaam (2)

1 Department of Environmental Sciences [Wageningen]
2 Environmental Sciences

In short-term tests and chronic life-table assays Daphnia magna was exposed to the cyanobacterial neurotoxic non-protein amino acid β-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA). BMAA was not acutely lethal to Daphnia (LC50-48h > 10000 µg L-1), but reduced mobility (IC50-48h 40 µg L-1) and affected life-history characteristics. Animals showed a tendency of later age at first reproduction, larger size at first reproduction, smaller clutch size and lower population growth rates with higher concentrations of BMAA. Animals that had been kept in either food-free medium or food-containing medium (the green alga Scenedemus obliquus) with BMAA accumulated BMAA in their tissue. The highest measured bioconcentration factors were up 275 in adult D. magna and 3821 in their neonates. This bioconcentration of the neurotoxic BMAA in D. magna suggests that these animals may be an important vector of BMAA along the pelagic food chain.

Mots clés: Life Sciences

Miquel Lürling, Elisabeth Faassen, Justine van Eenennaam. Effects of the cyanobacterial neurotoxin β-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) on the survival, mobility and reproduction of Daphnia magna. Journal of Plankton Research, 2010, 33 (2), pp.333. ⟨10.1093/plankt/FBQ130⟩. ⟨hal-00632293⟩