Cyanotoxins

1 Introduction: Cyanotoxins - Research for Environmental Safety and Human Health.- 2 Cyanotoxin Occurrence in Freshwaters.- 2.1 Cyanotoxin Occurrence in Germany.- 2.2 Comparison of Cyanotoxin Occurrence in Different Countries.- 2.3 Release and Persistence of Microcystins in Natural Waters.- 3 Factors Controlling Cellular Microcystin Content.- 3.1 Effects of Light and Nutrient Supply on Growth and Microcystin Content of Different Strains of Microcystis aeruginosa.- 3.2 Light-Limited Growth and Microcystin Content of Planktothrix agardhii and Microcystis aeruginosa in Turbidostats.- 3.3 Importance of Energy Charge for Microcystin Production.- 3.4 Characterization of Microcystin Synthetase Genes in Microcystis aeruginosa.- 4 Factors Affecting Cyanotoxin Concentrations in Natural Populations.- 4.1 Microcystin Variants in Microcystis and Planktothrix Dominated Field Samples.- 4.2 Isolation and Characterization of Colony-Forming Microcystis aeruginosa Strains.- 4.3 Environmental Factors an Microcystin Levels in Waterbodies.- 5 Cyanobacterial Toxicity and Human Exposure.- 5.1 Cyanotoxins and Human Health - Overview.- 5.2 Recreational Exposure to Cyanotoxins.- 5.3 Cyanotoxins in Drinking-Water Supplies.- 6 Effects of Microcystis spp. and Selected Cyanotoxins on Freshwater Organisms.- 6.1 Effects of Cyanotoxins on Early Life Stages of Fish and Amphibians.- 6.2 Uptake, Enzyme Effects and Metabolism of Microcystin-LR in Aquatic Organisms.- 6.3 Changes of Fish Behaviour Affected by Microcystin-LR.- 6.4 Responses of Daphnia galeata fed with Microcystis strains with and without Microcystins.- 7 Toxic Effects and Substances in Cyanobacteria other than Microcystins, Anatoxin-a and Saxitoxins.- 7.1 Peptides and Depsipeptides Produced by Cyanobacteria.- 7.2 Significance ofUnidentified Toxic Compounds and Approaches to their Identification.- 7.3 New Cyanobacterial Substances with Bioactive Properties.- 8 Contributions to Toxicity Testing and Toxin Analysis.- 8.1 Testing Cyanobacterial Toxicity with Primary Rat Hepatocyte and Cell-Line Assays.- 8.2 Can the Primary Rat Hepatocyte Assay Replace the Mouse Assay for Microcystin Testing? Validation with "Historic" Samples from the First Survey on Cyanobacterial Toxicity in Germany.- 8.3 Comparative Evaluation of Methods for Assessing Microcystin Concentrations with a Variety of Field Samples.- 8.4 A Fish-Embryo Bioassay for the Assessment of Cyanobacterial Toxicity.- 8.5 Rapid Typing and Structure Determination of Cyanobacterial Peptides Using MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry.- 9 Routine Analytical Methods Applied in the German Cyanotox Project.- 9.1 Microcystin Analysis.- 9.2 Cell Counting, Determination of Biovolume and Chlorophyll-a.