Microcystis Aeruginosa

Microcystis aeruginosa is a freshwater cyanobacterium that forms colonies of small cells only a few micrometers across, appearing light blue-green but often looking dark or brown because of gas-filled vesicles inside the cells. It favors warm, eutrophic, nutrient-rich fresh water, growing best around thirty two degrees Celsius in the laboratory even though it produces the most toxin at cooler temperatures near twenty degrees. It produces neurotoxins called lipopolysaccharides and hepatotoxins called microcystins, the most common of which is microcystin-LR, and is the most widespread toxic cyanobacterial bloom species in eutrophic fresh water, with blooms reported in at least one hundred eight countries and toxin production confirmed in at least seventy nine of them, contaminating drinking water and forcing costly filtration.