Degradation of the cyanobacterial hepatotoxin, nodularin, under light and dark conditions

Abstract

The stability of the cyanobacterial hepatotoxin, nodularin, was determined during the incubation of purified toxin, and in nodularin-containing cell-free extracts and whole filaments of the nodularin-producer, Nodularia spumigena in sunlight and darkness. Levels of purified nodularin in aqueous solution remained approximately constant throughout the 9-day trials under all conditions, but decreased in cell-free extracts and whole filaments when incubated under all conditions, with losses being greatest in full sunlight, intermediate in sunlight minus ultraviolet wavelengths and lowest in continuous darkness. Photodegradation and detoxification in Artemia salina bioassays occurred when purified nodularin was irradiated with ultraviolet wavelengths using a laboratory lamp.