Bioactive Products from Blue-Green Algae.

Extracellular products of blue-green algae.

Pteridines in blue green algae.

The presence of a remarkably high concentration of pteridiineS in the blue green alga, Anacystis nidulanis 5, wvas demonstrated by Forrest, van Baalen, and Myers in 1957 (2). A number of (lifferent pteridines were then isolated and ideentifie(l. These included 2-amino-4-hydroxypteridine, 2,6-diamino-4-hydroxypteridline (10), a yellow pteridine assigned the structure 2-aimino-4-hydroxv-6-propion...

Respiration in blue-green algae.

The low rate of endogenous respiration exhibited by the blue-green algae Anacystis nidulans and Phormidium luridum was not increased by the addition of respiratory substrates. However, endogenous respiration was inhibited by low concentrations of cyanide and by high carbon monoxide tensions. In addition, the uncouplers dinitrophenol and carbonyl cyanide p-trifluoromethoxyphenylhydrazone both st...

Ultrastructure of blue-green algae.

Two freshwater blue-green algae, Tolypothrix tenuis and Fremyella diplosiphon, and an oscillatorialike marine alga, were found to possess structures on the photosynthetic lamellae which appear to correspond to the phycobilisomes of red algae. These homologous structures are important because they contain the phycobilins which are accessory pigments involved in photosynthesis. As in the red alga...

Printed in Great Britain . PHYCOTOXINS FROM BLUE - GREEN ALGAE

Unpredictable poisonings of livestock and wildlife by waterblooms or scums of freshwater cyanophytes (cyanobacteria) occur when toxic strains of the common spe.cies dominate composition sufficiently to provide above-threshold levels of phycótoxins by susceptible animals. Known phycotoxins from freshwater cyanophytes are alkaloids, polypeptides or pteridines. New toxins produced by new strains h...