Strategy development to optimize the production of a high added-value cyanotoxin

[Excerpt] Microcystis aeruginosa is a well-known microcystin producer cyanobacterium that is commonly associated with water quality impairment and several animals/human intoxication occurrences. However, microcystin standards have applications in human and environmental risk assessment studies and recent research works highlight the huge potential of cyanotoxins to be applied as anticancer/antitumor drugs or antimicrobial agents.[...]This research work was supported by the grant SFRH/BPD/98694/2013 (Bruno Fernandes) and SFRH/BD/52335/2013 (Pedro Geada) from Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal). Luís Loureiro is recipient of a fellowship supported by a doctoral advanced training (call NORTE-69-2015-15) funded by the European Social Fund under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte. This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit and COMPETE 2020 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006684), Project UID/Multi/04423/2013, Project RECI/BBB-EBI/0179/2012 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-027462), FCT Strategic Project of UID/BIO/04469/2013 unit, by the project NOVELMAR (reference NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000035), co-financed by the North Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Norte 2020) under the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF), through the ERDF, and by BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte.