Micronucleus induction and chromosome loss in transformed human white cells indicate clastogenic and aneugenic action of the cyanobacterial toxin, cylindrospermopsin.

Test of the WIL2-NS lymphoblastoid cell-line in the well-validated cytokinesis-block micronucleus (CBMN) assay suggests that CYN acts to induce cytogenetic damage via two mechanisms, one at the level of the DNA to induce strand breaks, the other at thelevel of kinetochore/spindle function to induce loss of whole chromosomes (aneuploidy).