Phylogeny of Microcystins: Evidence of a Biogeographical Trend?

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2013

Authors

Cristiana Moreira (Author) Other; Vitor Vasconcelos (Author) FCUP; Agostinho Antunes (Author) FCUP

Journal

Title: Current Microbiology

Vol. 66

Pages: 214-221

ISSN: 0343-8651

Publisher: Springer Nature

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 12 Citations

Scopus - 17 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Natural sciences > Biological sciences

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-002-08Y

DOI: 10.1007/s00284-012-0258-5

Abstract (EN): Microcystins, the most prevalent cyanotoxins occurring worldwide, were first recorded in the species Microcystis aeruginosa. Its production has been reported in all continents; thus, we propose a comprehensive phylogenetic study to characterize M. aeruginosa microcystin-producing strains and establish whether or not the species has an historic biogeography. To accomplish this, we compared phylogenetically the nucleotide sequences of three genes of the mcy gene cluster (mcyA, mcyD and mcyG) from toxin producing M. aeruginosa strains across all the five continents. The obtained results provided valuable insight on the biogeography of M. aeruginosa produced microcystins: (i) the Asian strains showed to be distinct from the other continental groups indicating a genetically unique population and (ii) Asian strains were more related to European and North American strains. Moreover, the evidence of positive selection was determined in all the three mcy genes indicating that some functionality yet to be determined could be under selection for these genes.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 8