Nutritional constraints at the cyanobacteria—Daphnia magna interface: The role of sterols

摘要: In past decades, a considerable amount of research has been conducted to elucidate the factors that affect carbon transfer across cyanobacteria-Daphnia interface. It is well accepted cyanobacteria are nutritionally inadequate food source for cladocerans, but underlying mechanisms still controversial. Morphological properties, toxicity, and absence essential lipids, i.e., polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) sterols, discussed as most important account this nutritional inadequacy. Here, we standardized growth experiments with herbivore Daphnia magna feeding on coccal, filamentous, putatively toxic cyanobacterial strains comprising genera Synechococcus, Anabaena, Aphanizomenon, Microcystis mixture containing these genera. The relative importance PUFAs sterols in determining quality was assessed by supplementation eicosapentaenoic acid- and/or cholesterol-containing liposomes carbon. We provide evidence somatic daphnids coccal filamentous primarily constrained provided readily ingested nontoxic. appears be minor potentially affects egg production Daphnia. Thus, considered major food-quality constraint efficiency