CHARACTERIZATION OF TOXIN-PRODUCING CYANOBACTERIA BY USING AN OLIGONUCLEOTIDE PROBE CONTAINING A TANDEMLY REPEATED HEPTAMER

Cyanobacteria produce toxins that kill animals. The two main classes o f cyanobacterial toxins are cyclic peptides that cause liver damage an d alkaloids that block nerve transmission. Many toxin-producing strain s from Finnish lakes were brought into axenic culture, and their toxin s were characterized. Restriction fragment length polymorphism analysi s, probing with a short tandemly repeated DNA sequence found at many l ocations in the chromosome of Anabaena sp. strain PCC 7120, distinguis hes hepatotoxic Anabaena isolates from neurotoxin-producing strains an d from Nostoc spp.