Studying Toxins in the South of France, or How I Spent My Summer “Vacation”
Dr. Hugh MacIntyre, DISL Senior Marine Scientist
 

	Robbie MacIntyre leads his dad Dr. Hugh MacIntyre down the Rue de May in Villefranche

It’s just past midnight in Mobile and most people with small children are asleep. I walk up the street with Robbie. It’s a slow climb: the street is steep and Robbie, like most 18-month olds, finds a lot that distracts him from the prospect of fresh-baked bread. At last we reach the bakery and order breakfast, “Bonjour Madame, une fournée et une baguette, s’il-vous-plaît”. It’s not that there is a secret group of French-speaking insomniacs in Mobile; we are spending the summer on the Côte d’Azur and it’s the start of another day in France. There are many excellent reasons to visit the South of France: the superb food and crisp, light wines; the layers of Greek, Roman, Ligurian, Saracen, Savoyard and French history. We are here to enjoy all of these, of course, but the official version is that I have an appointment as Chercheur Associé de l’Etranger (Visiting Research Fellow) at the Laboratoire d’Océanographie de Villefranche-sur-mer.

	Dr. MacIntyre drawing a sample of Heterosigma from one of the culture vessels for testing

The reason I’m here is to work on a single-celled microalga called Heterosigma akashiwo. Microalgae are the base of the marine foodweb, using sunlight to convert carbon dioxide, water and nitrate or ammonium into the sugars, proteins and fats that feed shrimp, fish and whales. Heterosigma looks like a malignant potato chip that learnt how to swim, is about 1/000th of an inch long and is one of relatively few microalgae that can be toxic. It can produce both hydrogen peroxide and brevetoxin. Hydrogen peroxide is used to sterilize open wounds and brevetoxin is the same neurotoxin produced by the dinoflagellate Karenia brevis in red tides in the Gulf of Mexico. Heterosigma is responsible for killing marine organisms from bacteria to fish in blooms in Japan, Europe and the USA. In June, a toxic bloom on the west coast of the US stretched for about 50 miles along the coasts of British Columbia and Washington. The little beast is one of a group called the raphidophytes, which are hard to identify because they can’t be preserved for microscopic analysis. Even so, the Alabama Department of Public Health occasionally finds Heterosigma in its routine monitoring of Alabama waters and immediately after I arrived in France, Bill Smith and Carol Dorsey at ADPH sent word that another potentially-toxic raphidophyte, Chattonella, was blooming at Orange Beach.

	"Micrograph of our study organism, Heterosigma akashiwo, used by kind permission of Dr David Patterson (Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole) and the Guillard-Provasoli Center for the Culture of Marine Phytoplankton. The colored bar is about 1/2,500th of an inch."

The team is multi-national. I’m a Scot; Dr. Sciandra and his technician, Amélie Gelay, are French; Drs. Marcel Babin and Yannick Huot are Quebecois transplanted to France; and Fabiola Fami, a visiting Ph.D. student from the University of Florence, is Italian. We are doing the hands-on (actually, thanks to Dr. Sciandra’s automated set-up, rather hands-off) work with the cultures in France. This involves monitoring the cultures during shifts in their growth conditions with the automated sampling; taking additional samples to determine their responses to changes in light level; and measuring the levels and activities of several critical pigments and proteins. The toxin analysis will be done by Dr. Daniel Baden at the University of North Carolina, Wilmington.

At the end of the day, I walk around the harbor, between the 16th century citadel and the clear blue water, to our apartment. The part of Villefranche where we live dates from the 13th to 17th centuries and its builders had the foresight to recognize that it would be much more attractive in years to come if cars couldn’t get into it. Accordingly, the “streets” are about 8’ wide and comprise pairs of steps separated by 4’ stretches of pavement. The children have learned to navigate the streets, usually at high speed and often very noisily, careening between the post office, epicerie, apartment and beach. Small, rowdy children are the norm here and everyone keeps a tolerant eye on them. People take good care of Kim, my wife, too. Studiedly-cool teenagers with sunglasses and iPods help her to get the stroller on and off trains unbidden and bus-drivers pause in their routes to give detailed directions around the towns and cities. It’s a great place to raise a child and a great place to be a child. In idle moments I dream of moving here. Unfortunately, the Côte d’Azur has been the playground of the wealthy since the 1830s and the cost of living (made worse for us by the weak dollar) is astounding. A gallon of milk costs $6 and a 300 square-foot apartment costs as much as a 3-bedroom home in Mobile. I’ll be back at DISL in September – and working on the grant proposal for my next trip.