Author(s)

Gábor Vasas, Gyula Surányi, István Bácsi, Márta M-Hamvas, Csaba Máthé, Sándor Gonda, George Borbely

Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary.
Department of Hidrobiology, Faculty of Science, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary.

In this study we show that cylindrospermopsin (a cyanotoxin) content of filaments of Aphanizomenon ovalisporum ILC164 depended on growth on combined nitrogen or nitrogen fixation. Our results also demonstrated that the shift down of cyanobacterial filaments from combined nitrogen to dinitrogen fixing condition resulted in a significant decrease of cylindrospermopsin pool size which resumed a growth rate dependent manner as the heterocyst and nitrogenase formation appeared. The current study indicated that alteration of nitrogen metabolism of Aphanizomenon ovalisporum (Forti) induced changes in cyanotoxin (cylindrospermopsin) metabolism. In addition, this is the first report that isolated heterocysts, the differentiated anaerobic cells for nitrogen fixation of cyanobacteria, did not contain cylindrospermopsin.

Cylindrospermopsin; Cyanobacteria; Heterocyst; Nitrogen Starvation; Nitrogenase; Cyanotoxin

G. Vasas, G. Surányi, I. Bácsi, M. M-Hamvas, C. Máthé, S. Gonda and G. Borbely, "Alteration of Cylindrospermopsin Content of Aphanizomenon ovalisporum (Cyanobacteria, Nostocales) due to Step-Down from Combined Nitrogen to Dinitrogen," Advances in Microbiology, Vol. 3 No. 8, 2013, pp. 557-564. doi: 10.4236/aim.2013.38075.