Marine Algal Chemical Ecology 2024

A special issue of Marine Drugs (ISSN 1660-3397). This special issue belongs to the section "Marine Chemoecology for Drug Discovery".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 April 2025 | Viewed by 3582

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Earth and Planetary Science, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
Interests: oceanography; chemical oceanography; environmental microbiology; molecular tools for microbial ecology; mass spectrometry; lipidomics; lipid metabolism; marine biogeochemistry; microbial carbon cycling; ocean carbon cycle dynamics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Marine algae are fundamental to the global carbon cycle, fixing CO2 in the surface ocean, where it can be transferred up the trophic ladder, remineralized in the water column, or sequestered at depth. Marine algae are also the source of commercially important lipids and devastating phycotoxins. Their complex chemical ecology involves auxotrophic exchange with bacteria, quorum sensing of epibionts, ligand production for acquiring trace metal micronutrients, a range of chemical defense mechanisms, including phytohormones, phycotoxins, oxylipins, and copepodamides, and efficient internal cycling of metabolites to maximize resources. The ecological dynamics of marine algae have implications for the biogeochemistry of the oceans and the base of the marine food web, but studying these systems also tells us something fundamental about the chemistry of cell–cell interactions and adaptations to various physiochemical stressors.

Marine chemical ecology is broadly defined and employs molecular tools, such as omics and bioinformatics; microbiological techniques, such as flow cytometry, staining, and microscopy; and geochemical measurements, such as radiotracer experiments, elemental analysis, compound-specific isotope analysis, and NANO-SIMS. This field is being pushed forward by the thoughtful integration of these various data types, allowing us to interpret these complex ecosystems better. Furthermore, the data mining of omics datasets often reveals new hypotheses to test, and advances in mass spectrometry have allowed us to identify novel analytes.

This Special Issue invites articles exploring the chemical ecology of marine algae and the microorganisms in their phycosphere. We envision a Special Issue with articles on a diverse range of marine algal taxa and ecosystems that also features a diverse suite of analytical techniques applied inside the laboratory and/or in this field.

Dr. Bethanie R. Edwards
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • chemical ecology
  • marine microbiology
  • marine algae
  • omics
  • community dynamics

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 2785 KiB  
Article
Characterization of Phytoplankton-Derived Amino Acids and Tracing the Source of Organic Carbon Using Stable Isotopes in the Amundsen Sea
by Jun-Oh Min, Min-Seob Kim, Boyeon Lee, Jong-Ku Gal, Jinyoung Jung, Tae-Wan Kim, Jisoo Park and Sun-Yong Ha
Mar. Drugs 2024, 22(10), 476; https://doi.org/10.3390/md22100476 - 18 Oct 2024
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Abstract
We utilized amino acid (AA) and carbon stable isotope analyses to characterize phytoplankton-derived organic matter (OM) and trace the sources of organic carbon in the Amundsen Sea. Carbon isotope ratios of particulate organic carbon (δ13C-POC) range from −28.7‰ to −23.1‰, indicating [...] Read more.
We utilized amino acid (AA) and carbon stable isotope analyses to characterize phytoplankton-derived organic matter (OM) and trace the sources of organic carbon in the Amundsen Sea. Carbon isotope ratios of particulate organic carbon (δ13C-POC) range from −28.7‰ to −23.1‰, indicating that particulate organic matter originated primarily from phytoplankton. The dissolved organic carbon isotope (δ13C-DOC) signature (−27.1 to −21.0‰) observed in the sea-ice melting system suggests that meltwater contributes to the DOC supply of the Amundsen Sea together with OM produced by phytoplankton. A negative correlation between the degradation index and δ13C-POC indicates that the quality of OM significantly influences isotopic fractionation (r2 = 0.59, p < 0.001). The AA distribution in the Amundsen Sea (5.43 ± 3.19 µM) was significantly larger than previously reported in the Southern Ocean and was associated with phytoplankton biomass (r2 = 0.49, p < 0.01). Under conditions dominated by P. antarctica (DI = 2.29 ± 2.30), OM exhibited greater lability compared to conditions co-dominated by diatoms and D. speculum (DI = 0.04 ± 3.64). These results highlight the important role of P. antarctica in influencing the properties of OM, suggesting potential impacts on carbon cycling and microbial metabolic activity in the Amundsen Sea. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Algal Chemical Ecology 2024)
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17 pages, 1907 KiB  
Article
Cell-Death Metabolites from Cocconeis scutellum var. parva Identified by Integrating Bioactivity-Based Fractionation and Non-Targeted Metabolomic Approaches
by Carlos Sanchez-Arcos, Mirko Mutalipassi, Valerio Zupo and Eric von Elert
Mar. Drugs 2024, 22(7), 320; https://doi.org/10.3390/md22070320 - 18 Jul 2024
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Abstract
Epiphytic diatoms growing in Mediterranean seagrass meadows, particularly those of the genus Cocconeis, are abundant and ecologically significant, even in naturally acidified environments. One intriguing aspect of some benthic diatoms is their production of an unidentified cell-death-promoting compound, which induces destruction of [...] Read more.
Epiphytic diatoms growing in Mediterranean seagrass meadows, particularly those of the genus Cocconeis, are abundant and ecologically significant, even in naturally acidified environments. One intriguing aspect of some benthic diatoms is their production of an unidentified cell-death-promoting compound, which induces destruction of the androgenic gland in Hippolyte inermis Leach, 1816, a shrimp exhibiting protandric hermaphroditism, principally under normal environmental pH levels. The consumption of Cocconeis spp. by this shrimp is vital for maintaining the stability of its natural populations. Although many attempts have been made to reveal the identity of the apoptotic compound, it is still unknown. In this study, we strategically integrated a bioactivity-based fractionation, a metabolomic approach, and two different experimental avenues to identify potential apoptotic metabolites from Cocconeis scutellum var. parva responsible for the sex reversal in H. inermis. Our integrated analysis uncovered two potential candidate metabolites, one putatively identified as a lysophosphatidylglycerol (LPG) (16:1) and the other classified as a fatty acid ester. This is the first time LPG (16:1) has been reported in C. scutellum var. parva and associated with cell-death processes. These candidate metabolites mark substantial progress in elucidating the factors responsible for triggering the removal of the androgenic gland in the early post-larval phases of H. inermis. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Algal Chemical Ecology 2024)
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