The genus Limnospira contains only two species both unable to produce microcystins: L. maxima and L. platensis comb. nov.
Pierre-Etienne Pinchart,
Pia Marter,
Henner Brinkmann,
Yann Quilichini,
Mohamed Mysara,
Jörn Petersen,
Vanina Pasqualini,
Felice Mastroleo
Affiliations
Pierre-Etienne Pinchart
UMR SPE, UAR Stella Mare, Université de Corse, 20250 Corte, France; Fédération des Spiruliniers de France (FSF), 34800 Clermont-l'Hérault, France
Pia Marter
Leibniz Institute DSMZ – German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, 38124 Braunschweig, Germany; Julius Kühn-Institut (JKI), 06484 Quedlinburg, Germany
Henner Brinkmann
Leibniz Institute DSMZ – German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, 38124 Braunschweig, Germany
Yann Quilichini
UMR SPE, UAR Stella Mare, Université de Corse, 20250 Corte, France
Mohamed Mysara
Microbiology Unit, Nuclear Medical Applications, Belgian Nuclear Research Centre, SCK CEN, 2400 Mol, Belgium; Bioinformatics Group, Center for Informatics Science, Nile University, Giza 12677, Egypt
Jörn Petersen
Leibniz Institute DSMZ – German Collection of Microorganisms and Cell Cultures, 38124 Braunschweig, Germany; Corresponding author
Vanina Pasqualini
UMR SPE, UAR Stella Mare, Université de Corse, 20250 Corte, France
Felice Mastroleo
Microbiology Unit, Nuclear Medical Applications, Belgian Nuclear Research Centre, SCK CEN, 2400 Mol, Belgium; Corresponding author
Summary: Spirulina is the commercial name for edible cyanobacteria of the genus Limnospira. The taxonomy of this genus is confusing with four species distributed in two lineages. Furthermore, the species Limnospira fusiformis has been cited as toxic by potentially producing microcystins. Taxonomic ambiguity combined with suspected health concerns constitute a major issue for spirulina producers. In a collection of six cultivars and one ecotype, we identified strains of the two lineages through metagenetic and morphological analyses. We demonstrated that the genus Limnospira only comprises two distinct species according to genomic comparisons of three genomes obtained in this study and 19 reference genomes. We showed that the V3-V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene is sufficient to identify the genus Limnospira and to distinguish the two species. Toxinogenesis investigations on eleven genomes from each Limnospira species revealed no genes involved in cyanotoxin synthesis, reflecting the inability of this genus to produce microcystins.
