First Report of Strains Producing MC-FR and -WR Toxins in Japan.

Microcystins (MCs) are a group of cyclic heptapeptide hepatotoxins produced by and several other genera of cyanobacteria. Many structural variants have been characterized using various methods such as liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) inhibition assay. The representative MC, MC-LR, and related cyanobacterial toxins strongly inhibit PP2A activity and can therefore be assayed by measuring the extent of PP2A inhibition. However, these methods require reference toxin standards for the quantification and identification of known MCs. To obtain various MC-producing cyanobacterial strains, we surveyed and collected MC-producing cyanobacteria from environmental sources of water in Okinawa, Japan. Using a dual assay (LC-MS analysis and PP2A inhibition assay), we identified and isolated strains producing five MC variants (MC-LR, -RR, -LA, -FR and -WR). Approximately 4 mg of MC-WR and -FR toxins were purified from the laboratory culture of the isolate NIES-4344. Pure MC-WR and -FR variants were prepared for future use as toxin standards in LC-MS analysis. Phylogenetic analysis based on revealed that the NIES-4344 strain belongs to the identified groups in . This is the first report of strains producing mainly MC-WR and -FR toxins in Japan.