Cyanobacteria in hot pursuit: Characterization of cyanobacteria strains, including novel taxa, isolated from geothermal habitats from different ecoregions of the world.

Well-studied thermal spring microbial mat systems continue to serve as excellent models from which to make discoveries of general importance to microbial community ecology in order to address comprehensively the question of "who is there" in a microbial community. Cyanobacteria are highly adaptable and an integral part of many ecosystems including thermal springs. In this context, we sampled disparate thermal springs, spanning from Iceland and Poland to Greece and Tajikistan.

Limited Microcystin, Anatoxin and Cylindrospermopsin Production by Cyanobacteria from Microbial Mats in Cold Deserts.

Toxic metabolites are produced by many cyanobacterial species. There are limited data on toxigenic benthic, mat-forming cyanobacteria, and information on toxic cyanobacteria from Central Asia is even more scarce. In the present study, we examined cyanobacterial diversity and community structure, the presence of genes involved in toxin production and the occurrence of cyanotoxins in cyanobacterial mats from small water bodies in a cold high-mountain desert of Eastern Pamir.