The grant could provide up to $100,000.
The USGS is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research in phylogenetics, metagenomics, proteomics, and bioinformatics to inform mechanisms and processes that influence cyanotoxin production. Understanding the drivers and control mechanisms for algal toxin production is critical to developing new mitigation and prevention approaches of Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) across the nation. Advances in the 'omics methods have provided a suite of tools that can be used to enhance the understanding of HABs and toxin production dynamics. These tools can be used to characterize and study cyanobacteria and algal species, genes responsible for toxin production, and evolution of organisms and metabolic pathways.