Detection of Cyanotoxin-Producing Genes in a Eutrophic Reservoir (Billings Reservoir, São Paulo, Brazil)

CyanoHABs (cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms) are blooms of cyanobacteria capable of producing cyanotoxins, a large group of secondary metabolites that are toxic to most eukaryotes. In this work, the main aim was to evaluate the presence of multiple genes from each of the clusters responsible for biosynthesis of cyanotoxins (cylindrospermopsin, microcystin and saxitoxin) in total DNA obtained from sixteen environmental water samples by PCR. Microcystin gene mcyE was amplified in all analyzed samples. Among the cylindrospermopsin genes analyzed, only the cyrC gene was amplified from DNA obtained from three of sixteen samples. Of the three different saxitoxin genes analyzed, sxtB and sxtI were present in four and three of the sixteen samples studied, respectively, and sxtA did not show any positive result. Based on our results, we suggest caution when using only one gene from the full clusters responsible for biosynthesis of cyanotoxins, given that it may not be sufficient to confirm or exclude the toxigenic potential of a sample.