Basking in the sun on an Australian beach, I began to feel a burning sensation from excessive UV irradiation and decided not to wait for the ozone layer to return. As first aid I scraped some algae and cyanobacteria from the blistering rocks and smeared them on my exposed skin. Why? Because these organisms contain sunscreen compounds to protect themselves from harmful doses of UV-B (280–315 nm)...

The cyanobacterial neurotoxin β-N-methylamino-L-alanine (BMAA) has been considered a serious health threat because of its putative role in multiple neurodegenerative diseases. First reports on BMAA concentrations in cyanobacteria were alarming: nearly all cyanobacteria were assumed to contain high BMAA concentrations, implying ubiquitous exposure. Recent studies however question this presence o...

Commonly used parameters to assess cyanobacteria blooms are chlorophyll a concentration and cyanobacterial cell counts. Chlorophyll a is contained in all phytoplankton groups and therefore it is not a good estimator when only detection of cyanobacteria is desired. Moreover, laboratory determination of cyanobacterial cell counts is difficult and it requires a well-trained specialist. Instead of ...

Cyanobacteria of the genera Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus are the most abundant photosynthetic organisms on earth, occupying a key position at the base of marine food webs. The cynS gene that encodes cyanase was identified among bacterial, fungal, and plant sequences in public databases, and the gene was particularly prevalent among cyanobacteria, including numerous Prochlorococcus and Syne...

A large nation-wide survey of cyanotoxins (1161 lakes) in the United States (U.S.) was conducted during the EPA National Lakes Assessment 2007. Cyanotoxin data were compared with cyanobacteria abundance- and chlorophyll-based World Health Organization (WHO) thresholds and mouse toxicity data to evaluate potential recreational risks. Cylindrospermopsins, microcystins, and saxitoxins were detecte...

Nucleotide and amino acid compositions were studied to determine the genomic and structural relationship of photolyase gene in freshwater, marine and hot spring cyanobacteria. Among three habitats, photolyase encoding genes from hot spring cyanobacteria were found to have highest GC content. The genomic GC content was found to influence the codon usage and amino acid variability in photolyases....

Four different types of adaptation to sulfide among cyanobacteria are described based on the differential toxicity to sulfide of photosystems I and II and the capacity for the induction of anoxygenic photosynthesis. Most cyanobacteria are highly sensitive to sulfide toxicity, and brief exposures to low concentrations cause complete and irreversible cessation of CO(2) photoassimilation. Resistan...

Elevated temperatures and nutrients can favor phytoplankton dominance by cyanobacteria, which can be toxic to zooplankton. There is growing awareness that maternal effects not only are common but can also significantly impact ecological interactions. Although climate change is broadly studied, relatively little is known regarding its influence on maternal effects in zooplankton. Given that lake...

We performed comparative and mutational analyses to define more comprehensively the repertoire of genes involved in cyanobacterial cell division. Genes ftsE, ftsI, ftsQ, ftsW, and (previously recognized) ftsZ, minC, minD, minE and sulA were identified as homologues of cell division genes of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. Transposon mutagenesis of Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 iden...

Cyanobacteria are major contributors to global biogeochemical cycles. The genetic diversity among Cyanobacteria enables them to thrive across many habitats, although only a few studies have analyzed the association of phylogenomic clades to specific environmental niches. In this study, we adopted an ecogenomics strategy with the aim to delineate ecological niche preferences of Cyanobacteria and...