Introduction

After a brief historical overview on cyanotoxin research in general during the last decades the current knowledge on the genetic basis of cyanotoxin synthesis is summarized. In particular the biosynthetic pathways (the gene clusters and synthesis) of microcystin, cylindrospermopsin, saxitoxin and anatoxin-a as well as their evolutionary history are reviewed. It is important to note that genetic methods are only able to indicate the potential of toxin synthesis and do not provide information about actual toxin production and concentrations. Nevertheless there are potential applications in monitoring such as early warning and/or high throughput analysis. In the course of introducing into the application of the molecular tools an overview of the entire book structure is given and possible workflows as comprised among the individual chapters are highlighted.