The standardization of a molecular biology method to verify the presence of Microcystis aeruginosa

Environmental and climatic variations are often responsible for ‘algal bloom’ as a consequence of a very high proliferation of cyanobacteria that is caused by water eutrophication. This is a worrying event because it could be related to toxin production, which increases health risk for animals and humans following the consumption of contaminated food and water. Marine and freshwater cyanobacteria produce different types of toxins, characterized by different toxicity levels. These can be subdivided into two groups according to their tropisms: the neurotoxins and the hepatotoxins. It is accordingly important to establish laboratory techniques capable of detecting and identifying the genera of cyanobateria as well as the species of different toxicity. Recent molecular biology techniques allow a simple and useful diagnosis method that has no need for morphological analysis and that can discriminate the different genus and sometimes even the species. In contrast, the phenotypically different variants that can result from environmental conditions can lead to diagnostic mistakes