, 2008). In the Western Asia, India, the aoaA gene encoding an amidinotransferase from the CYN-producing Aph. ovalisporum strain isolated from Kinneret Lake (Shalev-Alon et al., 2002) was identified for the first time.

Yilmaz et al. (2008) showed that Aph. ovalisporum isolated from a fishpond in Jacksonville, Florida (USA, North America), had genes (pks/ps) putatively associated with the CYN production. In European water bodies, the toxigenic activity and biosynthesis of CYN by Aphanizomenon sp. including Aph. flos-aque were confirmed in previous studies of German water bodies based on identification of ps gene (Preußel et al., 2006) or cyrA/aoaA gene (Stüken & Jakobsen, 2010). Additionally, significant correlations between the particulate CYN concentrations and species biovolume were found for Aph. gracile EPZ6438 (rs = 0.803) in Langer See, a lake located in Northern Germany (Wiedner et al., 2008). In the present research, Aph. gracile occurred in all the water samples containing cyrJ gene

with one exception (BN, 25 July 2007) when the lowest total biomass of phytoplankton in both study periods was observed Fulvestrant cost (Kokociński et al., 2009) (Table 2). However, other species of Aphanizomenon also occurred in the investigated lakes (Table 2). Therefore, to determine which of the species of Aphanizomenon, and among them, which of the strains participated in the production of CYN, it is necessary that further research based on genetic analyses and cyanobacterial cultures should be performed. The genetic analysis of DNA from culture of C. raciborskii from BY did not confirm the presence of cyrJ. HPLC analysis did not confirm the presence of CYN in the cells either (Table 1, Fig. 2). The specificity of the strain analysed was confirmed by application of C. raciborskii-specific PCR amplifying 305 bp fragment of rpoC1 (Fig. 2). These results

indicated that the studied C. raciborskii culture had no toxic properties and CYN was not produced. The sulfotransferase cyrJ gene, which is an important part of the gene cluster responsible for the CYN biosynthesis, was detected almost in all the study water samples collected from two lakes: Bnińskie and Bytyńskie in the Western Poland. That result indicated a regular occurrence of potential much producers of CYN in study lakes during the summer period. Production of CYN was a consequence of the occurrence of the CYN-producing cyanobacteria. This preliminary genetic research of Polish lakes, which represent only a few research of this type in Europe, indicated Aphanizomenon sp. as the main CYN producer. C. raciborskii isolated from Bytyńskie did not contain the cyrJ gene nor the CYN. Based on the data of strains analyses performed in Germany (Fergusson & Saint, 2003; Mihali et al., 2008; Stüken & Jakobsen, 2010), Hungary (Mihali et al., 2008; Stüken & Jakobsen, 2010; Vasas et al., 2010) and Poland, we may assume that the strains of C.