Apparent relationships between toxins elaborated by the cyanobacterium Trichodesmium erythraeum and those present in the flesh of the narrow-barred Spanish mackerel Scomberomorus commersoni

Abstract

R. Endean, S. A. Monks, J. K. Griffith and L. E. Llewellyn. Apparent relationships between toxins elaborated by the cyanobacterium Trichodesmium erythraeum and those present in the flesh of the narrow-barred Spanish mackerel Scomberomorus commersoni. Toxicon 31, 1155–1165, 1993.—The marine cyanobacterium Trichodesmium erythraeum contains toxic water-soluble material that produces signs in mice similar to those produced by water-soluble extracts of the flesh of a specimen of pelagic fish Scomberomorus commersoni from a batch that had been implicated in a poisoning resembling ciguatera. Extracts of water-soluble material from both the cyanobacterium and the fish contained toxins that were chromatographically indistinguishable. A peptide and an alkaloid were detected in partially purified extracts of the water-soluble material. In addition to this material toxic lipid-soluble material was present in some batches of T. erythraeum. Elution of this material with 9:1 chloroform: methanol using column chromatography produced material that was chromatographically indistinguishable from ciguatoxin-like material from S. commersoni and produced signs in mice similar to those produced by this material. Elution of the lipid-soluble material with 97:3 chloroform: methanol yielded a toxin resembling in its chromatographic and toxic properties a scaritoxin-like substance from S. commersoni. Other toxins with R f values lying between that of the ciguatoxin-like material and that of the scaritoxin-like material were also detected in extracts of T. erythraeum. It is postulated that T. erythraeum is the progenitor of major toxins carried by some ciguateric fish and that water-soluble toxins released into the ambient sea water by T. erythraeum may constitute a health hazard for humans.