Novel CRISPR/Cas technology in the realm of algal bloom biomonitoring: Recent trends and future perspectives

In conjunction with global climate change, progressive ocean warming, and acclivity in pollution and anthropogenic eutrophication, the incidence of harmful algal blooms (HABs) and cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms (CHABs) continue to expand in distribution, frequency, and magnitude. Algal bloom-related toxins have been implicated in human health disorders and ecological dysfunction and are detrimental to the national and global economy. Biomonitoring programs based on traditional monitoring protocols were characterised by some limitations that can be efficiently overdone using the CRISPR/Cas technology. In the present review, the potential and challenges of exploiting the Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)-Cas technology for early detection of HABs and CHABs-associated toxigenic species were analysed. Based on more than 30 scientific papers, the main results indicate the great potential of CRISPR/Cas technology for this issue, even if the high sensitivity detected for the Cas12 and Cas13 platforms represents a possible interference risk.