Microcystis-a Cosmopolitan Cyanobacteria Genus with Worldwide Risks for the Environment, Animal and Human Health

摘要

@@Cyanobacteria or blue-green algae are an ancient group of prokaryotic organisms that were important in the development of the earth's oxygenic atmosphere. They are also valuable as fixers of atmospheric nitrogen in terrestrial environments, fixers of atmospheric carbon dioxide in nutrient poor marine waters, primary colonizers of arid and disturbed habitats and as producers of pharmacologically active compounds. However their production of potent toxins in fresh, brackish and even marine waters makes them a health risk especially since cyanobacteria respond to warm, stagnant, nutrient rich waters by producing dense growths or waterblooms. When the cyanobacteria present in these waterblooms produce potent toxins or decrease water quality through their high biomass they are referred to as “cyanobacteria harmful algae blooms” (CyanoHABs). Increasingly, CyanoHABs are being reported worldwide due to several factors - human development, increasing eutrophication and global warming.