Cyanobacteria hepatotoxins, microcystins: bioavailability in contaminated mussels exposed to different environmental conditions
2008
Morais, J. | Augusto, M. | Carvalho, A. P. | Vale, M. | Vasconcelos, V. M.
Mussels such as Mytilus galloprovincialis accumulate cyanotoxins without being affected by them. Microcystins (MCs), being the most common and studied cyanotoxins, covalently bind to protein phosphatases but this bond may be affected by environmental conditions. In this work, we studied the effect of different environmental and cooking conditions on the bioavailability of MCs in contaminated mussels. Conservation of contaminated mussels at room temperature (20 °C) led to a significant reduction of detectable MCs in the mussels. The conservation in the fridge (4 °C) produced a significant difference with a decrease on the detectable MC after 24, 48 and 72 h of exposure. The effects of the cooking on the MCs availability showed that boiling does not significantly change the MCs content of the mussels. Nevertheless, the microwave treatment significantly reduced the MCs content in both time periods used (1 and 5 min). Our work shows that the bioavailability of MCs in contaminated mussels may be changed due to conservation or cooking conditions.
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