Monterey Bay Municipal Wharf II 2014-2015
These metabarcoding and metatranscriptomic resources are generated from 52 near-weekly phytoplankton net-tow samples collected from Monterey Municipal Wharf II (MWII) in Monterey Bay, California from late 2014 to the end of 2015. Pseudo-nitzschia diatoms form oceanic harmful algal blooms that pose a significant threat to human health through production of the potent neurotoxin domoic acid (DA). DA biosynthetic gene expression is hypothesized to control DA production in the environment, yet there remains a gap in knowledge related to factors to that regulate and influence expression of these genes and molecular characterization of toxic blooms. This study captures dab gene expression from three toxigenic species during an economically impactful bloom along the North American West Coast, and identified two genes that predict DA in advance of its production. Results of this study suggest that increasing iron limitation due to global change could potentially play a previously unrecognized role in driving bloom frequency and toxicity.