Apparent relationships between toxins elaborated by the cyanobacterium Trichodesmium erythraeum and those present in the flesh of the narrow-barred Spanish mackerel Scomberomorus commersoni.

The marine cyanobacterium Trichodesmium erythraeum contains toxic water-soluble material that produces signs in mice similar to those produced by water-soluble extracts of the flesh of a specimen of pelagic fish Scomberomorus commersoni from a batch that had been implicated in a poisoning resembling ciguatera. Extracts of water-soluble material from both the cyanobacterium and the fish contained toxins that were chromatographically indistinguishable. A peptide and an alkaloid were detected in partially purified extracts of the water-soluble material. In addition to this material toxic lipid-soluble material was present in some batches of T. erythraeum. Elution of this material with 9:1 chloroform:methanol using column chromatography produced material that was chromatographically indistinguishable from ciguatoxin-like material from S. commersoni and produced signs in mice similar to those produced by this material. Elution of the lipid-soluble material with 97:3 chloroform:methanol yielded a toxin resembling in its chromatographic and toxic properties a scaritoxin-like substance from S. commersoni. Other toxins with Rf values lying between that of the ciguatoxin-like material and that of the scaritoxin-like material were also detected in extracts of T. erythraeum. It is postulated that T. erythraeum is the progenitor of major toxins carried by some ciguateric fish and that water-soluble toxins released into the ambient sea water by T. erythraeum may constitute a health hazard for humans.