Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Sciences and Engineering, Åbo Akademi University, Tykistökatu 6A, 20520 Turku, Finland.
University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Biology and Ecology, Trg Dositeja Obradovića 3, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia.
Toxins (Basel). 2022 Mar 16;14(3):215. doi: 10.3390/toxins14030215.
Cyanotoxins are a diverse group of bioactive compounds produced by cyanobacteria that have adverse effects on human and animal health. While the phenomenon of cyanotoxin production in aquatic environments is well studied, research on cyanotoxins in terrestrial environments, where cyanobacteria abundantly occur in biocrusts, is still in its infancy. Here, we investigated the potential cyanotoxin production in cyanobacteria-dominated biological loess crusts (BLCs) from three different regions (China, Iran, and Serbia) and in cyanobacterial cultures isolated from the BLCs. The presence of cyanotoxins microcystins, cylindrospermopsin, saxitoxins, and β-N-methylamino-L-alanine was analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method, while the presence of cyanotoxin-encoding genes (, , , , , and ) was investigated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method. We could not detect any of the targeted cyanotoxins in the biocrusts or the cyanobacterial cultures, nor could we amplify any cyanotoxin-encoding genes in the cyanobacterial strains. The results are discussed in terms of the biological role of cyanotoxins, the application of cyanobacteria in land restoration programs, and the use of cyanotoxins as biosignatures of cyanobacterial populations in loess research. The article highlights the need to extend the field of research on cyanobacteria and cyanotoxin production to terrestrial environments.
蓝藻毒素是一类由蓝藻产生的具有生物活性的化合物，对人类和动物健康有不良影响。虽然水生环境中蓝藻毒素产生的现象已经得到了充分研究，但在蓝藻大量存在于生物结皮的陆地环境中，对蓝藻毒素的研究仍处于起步阶段。在这里，我们调查了来自三个不同地区（中国、伊朗和塞尔维亚）的蓝藻占主导地位的生物黄土结皮（BLC）和从 BLC 中分离的蓝藻培养物中潜在的蓝藻毒素产生情况。采用液相色谱-串联质谱法（LC-MS/MS）分析微囊藻毒素、节旋藻毒素、石房蛤毒素和β-N-甲基氨基-L-丙氨酸等蓝藻毒素的存在情况，通过聚合酶链反应（PCR）方法研究蓝藻毒素编码基因（、、、、、和）的存在情况。我们在生物结皮或蓝藻培养物中均未检测到目标蓝藻毒素，也未能在蓝藻菌株中扩增出任何蓝藻毒素编码基因。根据蓝藻毒素的生物学作用、蓝藻在土地恢复计划中的应用以及蓝藻毒素作为黄土研究中蓝藻种群生物特征的应用，对结果进行了讨论。本文强调了需要将蓝藻和蓝藻毒素产生的研究领域扩展到陆地环境。
