2.1. Field Sampling
In 2011, water samples from the sub-surface (1 m depth) were collected at Arcachon Bay in France (Figure 2) between July and October for microarray analysis (Table 1). The sampling site termed Tès (1°10'00 W, 44°40'00 N), is directly located in front of the town of Arcachon inside the bay. Data of toxic, harmful, and other phytoplankton abundances is provided by IFREMER (Ifremer/Quadrige2/Rephy DATA) from the paired station named Teychan (1.5 km from Tès). Cell counts were done as previously described by Medlin and Schmidt [15] and Kegel et al. [16].
microarrays-02-00001-t001_Table 1 Table 1  Information about field samples taken at Arcachon Bay like sample name, sample date, filtered volume, total extracted RNA and degree of labeling (DoL).
Figure 2  Sampling sites in Arcachon Bay (France): the station Tès (Teychan).   For the microarray analysis, a minimum of three liters (Table 1) were filtered onto 3 µm nitrocellulose filters (47 mm) in triplicate. For each sampling date, the first and second replicated filter was transferred into cryogenic vials containing 1 mL of TRI Reagent (Sigma-Aldrich). Those samples were snap frozen and stored at –80 °C until further process for RNA extraction. Toxicity was measured by one of the Partners (Queens University Belfast, UK) with a newly developed multiplex optical Surface Plasmon Resonance biosensor (Multi SPR) in parallel with the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) [17]. The target toxins are domoic acid (DA) for amnesic shellfish poisoning (ASP), okadaic acid (OA) and dinophysistoxins (DTXs) for diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) and saxitoxin (STX) for paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxin analogs. Therefore, the third replicated filter was transferred into cryogenic vials without TRI Reagent and sent frozen to Queens University Belfast who was responsible for the toxin measurements.