In spite of the great environmental and sanitary importance of cyanobacteria, their biodiversity is little known in Tunisia. In this work, a review was carried out, based on literature data, of potentially toxic cyanobacteria occurrence in Tunisia. Microcystis, one of the most widely distributed toxic bloom-forming cyanobacteria genera, was represented by Microcytis wesenbergii, found only in Lebna water reservoir, and Microcytis aeruginosa recorded in different water bodies. The invasive potentially toxic cyanobacterium Cylindrospermopsis raciborskii, reported for the first time in Tunisia in October 2004, was observed in the semi-arid to arid areas. The harmful genus Planktothrix was represented in Tunisian freshwater by the green-pigmented species P. agardhii. The filamentous cyanobacteria dominance is increasingly reported in Tunisia in eutrophic water bodies. This dominance increases especially during the summer–autumn period. Recently, potentially toxic cyanobacteria blooms have been reported in some reservoirs in the north east of the country. These blooms were generated by the potentially toxic Chroococcale Microcystis aeruginosa. Harmful cyanobacteria tend to spatio-temporal expansion in the Tunisian inland waters. The toxicological potential evaluated by several methods showed that none of the Tunisian strains were proved to be cylindrospermopsin nor saxitoxin producers. However, the majority of Microcystis were able to synthesize microcystin.
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Research Article|March 05 2015
Biodiversity of cyanobacteria in Tunisian freshwater reservoirs: occurrence and potent toxicity – a review
Afef Fathalli
Afef Fathalli
1Unité de Recherche Ecosystèmes et Ressources Aquatiques, Institut National Agronomique de Tunisie, 43, Avenue Charles-Nicolle, 1082 Tunis Mahrajène, Tunisia2Institut National des Sciences et Technologie de la Mer, Port de pèche-2060 La Goulette, Tunis, Tunisia
E-mail: fathalli_afef@yahoo.fr
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Mohamed S. Romdhane
Mohamed S. Romdhane
1Unité de Recherche Ecosystèmes et Ressources Aquatiques, Institut National Agronomique de Tunisie, 43, Avenue Charles-Nicolle, 1082 Tunis Mahrajène, Tunisia
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Vitor Vasconcelos
Vitor Vasconcelos
3Centro de Investigação Marinha e Ambiental- CIIMAR/CIMAR, Universidade do Porto, Rua dos Bragas, 289, 4050–123 Porto, Portugal and Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre, 4169–007 Porto, Portugal
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Amel Ben Rejeb Jenhani
Amel Ben Rejeb Jenhani
1Unité de Recherche Ecosystèmes et Ressources Aquatiques, Institut National Agronomique de Tunisie, 43, Avenue Charles-Nicolle, 1082 Tunis Mahrajène, Tunisia
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Journal of Water Supply: Research and Technology-Aqua (2015) 64 (6): 755-772.
Article history
Received:
August 28 2014
Accepted:
January 22 2015
Citation
Afef Fathalli, Mohamed S. Romdhane, Vitor Vasconcelos, Amel Ben Rejeb Jenhani; Biodiversity of cyanobacteria in Tunisian freshwater reservoirs: occurrence and potent toxicity – a review. Journal of Water Supply: Research and Technology-Aqua 1 September 2015; 64 (6): 755–772. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/aqua.2015.119
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