Structural characterization of toxic cyclic peptides from blue-green algae by tandem mass spectrometry.

Tandem Mass Spectrometry of Peptides

Renata Soares1, Elisabete Pires1, André M. Almeida1,2, Romana Santos1,3, Ricardo Gomes1, Kamila Koči1, Catarina Ferraz Franco1 and Ana Varela Coelho1 1ITQB/Universidade Nova de Lisboa 2Instituto de Investigação Cientifica Tropical& Centro Interdisciplinar de Investigação em Sanidade Animal 3Unidade de Investigação em Ciências Orais e Biomédicas, Faculdade de Medicina Dentária/Universidade de Li...

Toxic Blue-green Algae: the "problem" in Perspective

Lysis of blue-green algae by myxobacter.

Enrichment from local fishponds led to the isolation of a bacterium capable of lysing many species of unicellular and filamentous blue-green algae, as well as certain bacteria. The isolate is an aflagellate, motile rod which moves in a gliding, flexuous manner; the organism is capable of digesting starch and agar, but not cellulose and gelatin. Its deoxyribonucleic acid base pair composition (p...

Complete structural elucidation of triacylglycerols by tandem sector mass spectrometry.

We developed a method to elucidate the complete structure of triacylglycerols by means of high-energy collisional activation tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS). Both ESI- and FAB-produced [M + NH4]+ and [M + met.]+ ions (where met. = Li, Na, and Cs) of triacylglycerols undergo charge-remote and charge-driven fragmentations. We emphasize the study of fragment ions from ESI-produced [M + NH4]+ and ...

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...