Paralytic shellfish poisoning toxin-producing cyanobacterium Aphanizomenon gracile in northeast Germany.

ABSTRACT: Neurotoxic paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) toxins, anatoxin-a (ATX), and hepatotoxic cylindrospermopsin (CYN) have been detected in several lakes in northeast Germany during the last 2 decades. They are produced worldwide by members of the nostocalean genera Anabaena, Cylindrospermopsis, and Aphanizomenon. Although no additional sources of PSP toxins and ATX have been identified in German water bodies to date, the observed CYN concentrations cannot be produced solely by Aphanizomenon flos-aquae, the only known CYN producer in Germany. Therefore, we attempted to identify PSP toxin, ATX, and CYN producers by isolating and characterizing 92 Anabaena, Aphanizomenon, and Anabaenopsis strains from five lakes in northeast Germany. In a polyphasic approach, all strains were morphologically and

SUBMITTER: Ballot A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2820976 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature