IntroductionMicrocystis species are among the most common waterbloom-forming cyanobacteria and a valuable source of various secondary metabolites (Carmichael, 1994). Microcystis aeruginosa is known to produce microcystin, a potent cyclic heptapeptide hepatotoxin that inhibits protein phosphatases 1 and 2A and has more than 60 components (MacKintosh et al., 1990;Sivonen and Jones, 1999). Microcystins are recognized as being causative of many animal poisonings and human illnesses (Sivonen and Jones, 1999). Moreover, M. aeruginosa produce several small peptides including micropeptin, aeruginosin and microviridin, which are inhibitors of protease (Rohrlack et al., 2003). Microviridin J causes a lethal molting disruption in Daphnia pulicaria, suggesting that other cyanobacterial protease inhibitors are toxic to zooplankton (Rohrlack et al., 2004). In order to assess the health hazard posed by cyanobacteria to humans and livestock, it is necessary to achieve a better understanding of the secondary metabolites produced by bloomforming cyanobacteria. These cyanopeptides are predicted to be produced nonribosomally by the multifunctional peptide synthetases (Finking and Marahiel, 2004
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