ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2012
Cyanobacteria produce a high variety of hepatotoxic peptides in lichen symbiosis.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 55 papers.
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Who cites it
55 citing papers in PubMed, 172 citations in OpenAlex.
- Grazing mediates microclimate effects on lichen performance near its warm-range margin.Annals of botany · 2026Article
- Novel insights into cyanobacterial (microcystins) neurotoxicity in rats: hepatic encephalopathy.Archives of toxicology · 2026Article
- Genetic and Metabolic Diversity of Cyanobacteria on the Rock-Water Interface in Mountainous Ecosystems.Environmental science & technology · 2025Article
- Ultraviolet radiation: a double-edged sword in old forest Lobaria lichens-reducing growth while enhancing acclimation.Oecologia · 2025Article
- Article
- Unveiling the ecological processes driving soil and lichen microbiome assembly along an urbanization gradient.NPJ biofilms and microbiomes · 2025Article
- A Biosynthetic and Taxonomic Atlas of the Global Lichen Holobiont.Environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- Airborne Cyanobacterial Toxins and Their Links to Neurodegenerative Diseases.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Article
- Exploring the secrets of marine microorganisms: Unveiling secondary metabolites through metagenomics.Microbial biotechnology · 2024Review
- Incorporating Microbial Species Interaction in Management of Freshwater Toxic Cyanobacteria: A Systems Science Challenge.Aquatic ecology · 2022Article
- Structure and Biosynthesis of Desmamides A-C, Lipoglycopeptides from the Endophytic CyanobacteriumJournal of natural products · 2022Review
- Detection of Microcystin-LR in the Cells and Natural Lake Water Samples by A Unique Fluorescence-Based Method.Journal of fluorescence · 2022Article
- Beyond Soil-Dwelling Actinobacteria: Fantastic Antibiotics and Where to Find Them.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Molecular detection of some toxogenic cyanobacteria in Tigris River in Baghdad-Iraq.Molecular biology reports · 2021Article
- Review
- Review
- Cyanobacteria-From the Oceans to the Potential Biotechnological and Biomedical Applications.Marine drugs · 2021Review
- Symbioses of Cyanobacteria in Marine Environments: Ecological Insights and Biotechnological Perspectives.Marine drugs · 2021Review
- Complex Interaction Networks Among Cyanolichens of a Tropical Biodiversity Hotspot.Frontiers in microbiology · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Lichens are symbiotic associations between fungi and photosynthetic algae or cyanobacteria. Microcystins are potent toxins that are responsible for the poisoning of both humans and animals. These toxins are mainly associated with aquatic cyanobacterial blooms, but here we show that the cyanobacterial symbionts of terrestrial lichens from all over the world commonly produce microcystins. We screened 803 lichen specimens from five different continents for cyanobacterial toxins by amplifying a part of the gene cluster encoding the enzyme complex responsible for microcystin production and detecting toxins directly from lichen thalli. We found either the biosynthetic genes for making microcystins or the toxin itself in 12% of all analyzed lichen specimens. A plethora of different microcystins was found with over 50 chemical variants, and many of the variants detected have only rarely been reported from free-living cyanobacteria. In addition, high amounts of nodularin, up to 60 μg g(-1), were detected from some lichen thalli. This microcystin analog and potent hepatotoxin has previously been known only from the aquatic bloom-forming genus Nodularia. Our results demonstrate that the production of cyanobacterial hepatotoxins in lichen symbiosis is a global phenomenon and occurs in many different lichen lineages. The very high genetic diversity of the mcyE gene and the chemical diversity of microcystins suggest that lichen symbioses may have been an important environment for diversification of these cyanobacteria.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.