Bing Wang , Qikun Huang

Tropical Microbial Resources Research Center, Cuixi Academy of Biotechnology, Zhuji, 311800, Zhejiang, China
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Aquaculture, 2025, Vol. 15, No. 4   
Received: 12 May, 2025    Accepted: 25 Jun., 2025    Published: 10 Jul., 2025

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Algae toxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by algae during water blooming, with a variety of chemical structure types and toxicological effects. With the eutrophication of water bodies and the intensification of climate change, harmful algae blooms in freshwater and marine ecosystems around the world occur frequently and releases a large number of toxins, posing a serious threat to ecosystems and human health. In order to reveal the internal mechanism of algatoxin production, researchers started from genetic and environmental factors and carried out multiomic studies such as genome, transcriptome, metabolomic and ecological experiments. This study reviews the classification, chemical structure and mechanism of action of common algae toxins, explores the ecological function of toxins in algae and the food chain migration process; summarizes the discovery and characteristics of genes and gene clusters related to algae toxin biosynthesis; analyzes the impact of environmental factors such as nutrients, light, temperature, hydrodynamics and biological interactions on the production of toxins, as well as the latest progress in toxin monitoring and prediction based on molecular markers, remote sensing and big data. Finally, a prospect is proposed for the insufficient progress of the current research, in order to provide a theoretical basis for algatoxin risk assessment, ecological management and prevention and control strategies.

Algae toxins; Gene clusters; Molecular regulation; Environmental factors; Monitoring and prediction