Marine Natural Products in Crop Protection

A special issue of Marine Drugs (ISSN 1660-3397).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2020) | Viewed by 22100

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Marine Natural Products Chemistry Research Unit, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Am Kiel-Kanal 44, 24106 Kiel, Germany
Interests: marine natural product chemistry; marine microbiology; deep-sea organisms; structure elucidation; bioactivity; cancer; infectious diseases
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Agriculture that provides the fruits and vegetables for the rapidly growing world population is a crucial sector for the survival and wellbeing of human beings. However, various types of harmful pests (plant pathogens, harmful insects, or invasive plants/weeds) threaten global agriculture, affecting the quality and yield of crops. For example, more than 10% of global crop production is lost to plant diseases. Currently, cheap and easily applicable synthetic herbicides and pesticides, including fungicides and insecticides, represent the main solution for pest management. However, their toxicity to humans, animals, and the whole ecosystem has been a major concern, and several blockbuster pesticides are being banned by the authorities. The climate change and loss of biodiversity further aggravates the problems associated with synthetic pesticides.

As in many areas, natural products obtained from terrestrial plants and microorganisms have provided many scaffolds for pesticide development. However, the potential marine organisms in crop protection have remained largely underexplored. Therefore, this Special Issue aims to stimulate research on marine natural products (MNPs) deriving from marine macro-organisms (e.g., invertebrates, seaweeds) and marine micro-organisms to yield new lead compounds for protection of essential crop plants.

The main foci of this Special Issue will be on, but not restricted to, the following areas:

1. Isolation and identification of MNPs with biological activity against:
• Plant (crop) pathogens (phytopathogens);
• Harmful insects;
2. MNPs for weed control (phytotoxicity);
3. Target and mode of action studies on MNPs with fungicide/herbicide/insecticide activity;
4. Omics in the isolation and identification of new MNP agrochemicals;
5. Chemical synthesis and bioactivity studies on marine-originated pesticide lead compounds.

Sincerely,

Prof. Deniz Tasdemir
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Marine natural products
  • Agriculture
  • Biopesticide
  • Crop protection
  • Phytopathogen
  • Fungicide
  • Insecticide
  • Herbicide
  • Weed control
  • Mechanism of action
  • Omics
  • Organic syntheses

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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9 pages, 6194 KiB  
Article
Antimicrobial Meroterpenoids and Erythritol Derivatives Isolated from the Marine-Algal-Derived Endophytic Fungus Penicillium chrysogenum XNM-12
by Kuo Xu, Xu-Lun Wei, Lin Xue, Zhong-Feng Zhang and Peng Zhang
Mar. Drugs 2020, 18(11), 578; https://doi.org/10.3390/md18110578 - 20 Nov 2020
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 2994
Abstract
One new meroterpenoid-type alkaloid, oxalicine C (1), and two new erythritol derivatives, penicierythritols A (6) and B (7), together with four known meroterpenoids (25), were isolated from the marine algal-derived endophytic fungus Penicillium [...] Read more.
One new meroterpenoid-type alkaloid, oxalicine C (1), and two new erythritol derivatives, penicierythritols A (6) and B (7), together with four known meroterpenoids (25), were isolated from the marine algal-derived endophytic fungus Penicillium chrysogenum XNM-12. Their planar structures were determined by means of spectroscopic analyses, including UV, 1D and 2D NMR, and HRESIMS spectra. Their stereochemical configurations were established by comparing the experimental and calculated electronic circular dichroism (ECD) spectra for compound 1, as well as by comparison of the optical rotations with literature data for compounds 6 and 7. Notably, oxalicine C (1) represents the first example of an oxalicine alkaloid with a cleaved α-pyrone ring, whereas penicierythritols A (6) and B (7) are the first reported from the Penicillium species. The antimicrobial activities of compounds 17 were evaluated. Compounds 1 and 6 exhibited moderate antibacterial effects against the plant pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of 8 and 4 μg/mL, respectively. Compound 6 also possesses moderate antifungal properties against the plant pathogen Alternaria alternata with a MIC value of 8 μg/mL. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Natural Products in Crop Protection)
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19 pages, 4161 KiB  
Article
Mining the Metabolome and the Agricultural and Pharmaceutical Potential of Sea Foam-Derived Fungi
by Ernest Oppong-Danquah, Cristina Passaretti, Orazio Chianese, Martina Blümel and Deniz Tasdemir
Mar. Drugs 2020, 18(2), 128; https://doi.org/10.3390/md18020128 - 22 Feb 2020
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 5853
Abstract
Sea foam harbors a diverse range of fungal spores with biological and ecological relevance in marine environments. Fungi are known as the producers of secondary metabolites that are used in health and agricultural sectors, however the potentials of sea foam-derived fungi have remained [...] Read more.
Sea foam harbors a diverse range of fungal spores with biological and ecological relevance in marine environments. Fungi are known as the producers of secondary metabolites that are used in health and agricultural sectors, however the potentials of sea foam-derived fungi have remained unexplored. In this study, organic extracts of six foam-derived fungal isolates belonging to the genera Penicillium, Cladosporium, Emericellopsis and Plectosphaerella were investigated for their antimicrobial activity against plant and human pathogens and anticancer activity. In parallel, an untargeted metabolomics study using UPLC-QToF–MS/MS-based molecular networking (MN) was performed to unlock their chemical inventory. Penicillium strains were identified as the most prolific producers of compounds with an average of 165 parent ions per strain. In total, 49 known mycotoxins and functional metabolites were annotated to specific and ubiquitous parent ions, revealing considerable chemical diversity. This allowed the identification of putative new derivatives, such as a new analog of the antimicrobial tetrapeptide, fungisporin. Regarding bioactivity, the Penicillium sp. isolate 31.68F1B showed a strong and broad-spectrum activity against seven plant and human pathogens, with the phytopathogen Magnaporthe oryzae and the human pathogen Candida albicans being the most susceptible (IC50 values 2.2 and 6.3 µg/mL, respectively). This is the first study mining the metabolome of the sea foam-derived fungi by MS/MS-based molecular networking, and assessing their biological activities against phytopathogens. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Natural Products in Crop Protection)
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18 pages, 3399 KiB  
Article
Design of Fungal Co-Cultivation Based on Comparative Metabolomics and Bioactivity for Discovery of Marine Fungal Agrochemicals
by Ernest Oppong-Danquah, Paulina Budnicka, Martina Blümel and Deniz Tasdemir
Mar. Drugs 2020, 18(2), 73; https://doi.org/10.3390/md18020073 - 23 Jan 2020
Cited by 22 | Viewed by 5394
Abstract
Microbial co-cultivation is employed for awakening silent biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) to enhance chemical diversity. However, the selection of appropriate partners for co-cultivation remains a challenge. Furthermore, competitive interactions involving the suppression of BGCs or upregulation of known, functional metabolite(s) during co-cultivation efforts [...] Read more.
Microbial co-cultivation is employed for awakening silent biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) to enhance chemical diversity. However, the selection of appropriate partners for co-cultivation remains a challenge. Furthermore, competitive interactions involving the suppression of BGCs or upregulation of known, functional metabolite(s) during co-cultivation efforts is also common. Herein, we performed an alternative approach for targeted selection of the best co-cultivation pair. Eight marine sediment-derived fungi were classified as strong or weak, based on their anti-phytopathogenic potency. The fungi were co-cultured systematically and analyzed for their chemical profiles and anti-phytopathogenic activity. Based on enhanced bioactivity and a significantly different metabolite profile including the appearance of a co-culture specific cluster, the co-culture of Plenodomus influorescens (strong) and Pyrenochaeta nobilis (weak) was prioritized for chemical investigation. Large-scale co-cultivation resulted in isolation of five polyketide type compounds: two 12-membered macrolides, dendrodolide E (1) and its new analog dendrodolide N (2), as well as two rare azaphilones spiciferinone (3) and its new analog 8a-hydroxy-spiciferinone (4). A well-known bis-naphtho-γ-pyrone type mycotoxin, cephalochromin (5), whose production was specifically enhanced in the co-culture, was also isolated. Chemical structures of compounds 15 were elucidated by NMR, HRMS and [α] D 20 analyses. Compound 5 showed the strongest anti-phytopathogenic activity against Xanthomonas campestris and Phytophthora infestans with IC50 values of 0.9 and 1.7 µg/mL, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Natural Products in Crop Protection)
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Review

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31 pages, 771 KiB  
Review
Seaweed-Based Compounds and Products for Sustainable Protection against Plant Pathogens
by Pushp Sheel Shukla, Tudor Borza, Alan T. Critchley and Balakrishnan Prithiviraj
Mar. Drugs 2021, 19(2), 59; https://doi.org/10.3390/md19020059 - 25 Jan 2021
Cited by 54 | Viewed by 6988
Abstract
Sustainable agricultural practices increasingly demand novel, environmentally friendly compounds which induce plant immunity against pathogens. Stimulating plant immunity using seaweed extracts is a highly viable strategy, as these formulations contain many bio-elicitors (phyco-elicitors) which can significantly boost natural plant immunity. Certain bioactive elicitors [...] Read more.
Sustainable agricultural practices increasingly demand novel, environmentally friendly compounds which induce plant immunity against pathogens. Stimulating plant immunity using seaweed extracts is a highly viable strategy, as these formulations contain many bio-elicitors (phyco-elicitors) which can significantly boost natural plant immunity. Certain bioactive elicitors present in a multitude of extracts of seaweeds (both commercially available and bench-scale laboratory formulations) activate pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) due to their structural similarity (i.e., analogous structure) with pathogen-derived molecules. This is achieved via the priming and/or elicitation of the defense responses of the induced systemic resistance (ISR) and systemic acquired resistance (SAR) pathways. Knowledge accumulated over the past few decades is reviewed here, aiming to explain why certain seaweed-derived bioactives have such tremendous potential to elicit plant defense responses with considerable economic significance, particularly with increasing biotic stress impacts due to climate change and the concomitant move to sustainable agriculture and away from synthetic chemistry and environmental damage. Various extracts of seaweeds display remarkably different modes of action(s) which can manipulate the plant defense responses when applied. This review focuses on both the similarities and differences amongst the modes of actions of several different seaweed extracts, as well as their individual components. Novel biotechnological approaches for the development of new commercial products for crop protection, in a sustainable manner, are also suggested. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Natural Products in Crop Protection)
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