Occurrence of mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs) in the bloom-forming cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa

Here we report the finding of two mycosporine-like amino acids (shinorine and Porphyra-334) in both a culture of the cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa isolated from Lake Taihu (China) and a natural phytoplankton sample collected from this lake which included Microcystis spp. Our results are the first to clearly document the occurrence of these UV-sunscreen compounds in a freshwater bloom-forming cyanobacterium.