Lysis of cyanobacteria with volatile organic compounds.

One of bacteria collected from Lake Sagami, Japan, Brevibacillus sp., was found to have a lytic activity of cyanobacteria, but did not produce active compounds. Instead, the co-culturing of Microcystis with the Brevibacillus sp. enhanced the production of two volatile compounds, beta-cyclocitral and 3-methyl-1-butanol, and the former had a characteristic lytic activity. It was confirmed that these volatile compounds were derived from the cyanobacteria themselves. beta-Ionone, geosmin and 2-methylisoborneol derived from cyanobacteria and similar volatile compounds, terpenoids, produced by plants also had a lytic activity. The minimum inhibitory concentration values of the cyanobacterial metabolites were estimated to be higher than those of compounds from plants except for a few compounds. Among them, beta-cyclocitral only produced a characteristic color change of culture broth from green to blue. This color change is similar to the phenomenon observed when a sudden decline in growth of cyanobacteria begins in a natural environment.