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. 1990 Sep;56(9):2650–2657. doi: 10.1128/aem.56.9.2650-2657.1990

Isolation and characterization of hepatotoxic microcystin homologs from the filamentous freshwater cyanobacterium Nostoc sp. strain 152.

K Sivonen 1, W W Carmichael 1, M Namikoshi 1, K L Rinehart 1, A M Dahlem 1, S I Niemelä 1
PMCID: PMC184822  PMID: 2125813

Abstract

A strain of the filamentous cyanobacterium Nostoc sp. isolated from a lake in Finland was found to produce at least nine hepatotoxic peptides with chemical and toxicological properties similar to those of the hepatotoxic hepta- and pentapeptides produced by other cyanobacteria. Toxins were isolated and purified by high-performance liquid chromatography. Amounts available for five of the purified toxins (P6, P14, P15, P16, and P18) were adequate for high-performance liquid chromatography amino acid analysis and determination of molecular weight by fast-atom bombardment-mass spectrometry (FAB-MS). Quantities of three toxins (P14, P15, and P16) were adequate for further analysis by high-resolution FAB-MS, FAB-MS/MS, and 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance. Analysis showed that the toxins are new types of microcystin-LR homologs. Microcystin-LR contains equimolar amounts of D-alanine, L-leucine, D-erythro-beta-methylaspartic acid, L-arginine, ADDA (3-amino-9-methoxy-2,6,8-trimethyl-10-phenyl-4,6-decadienoic acid), D-glutamic acid, and N-methyldehydroalanine (molecular weight [MW], 994). Nostoc sp. strain 152 was found to produce the following microcystin-LR homologs: (i) P6 contains an extra methylene group most probably due to the presence of N-methyldehydrobutyrine instead of N-methyldehydroalanine (MW, 1,008); (ii) P14 is O-acetyl-O-demethyl ADDA-microcystin-LR (MW, 1,022); (iii) P15 is 3-demethyl-O-acetylADDA-homoarginine-microcystin-LR (MW, 1,036); (iv) P16 is 3-demethyl-O-acetyl-O-demethylADDA-microcystin-LR (MW, 1,008); (v) P18 is 3-demethyl-O-acetyl-O-demethylADDA-homoarginine-microcystin- LR (MW, 1,022). The toxicities of the new microcystin homologs were not significantly different from those of microcystin-LR or demethylmicrocystin-LR.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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