Highlights in Seagrasses’ Phylogeny, Physiology, and Metabolism: What Makes Them Special?

Abstract

The marine seagrasses form an ecological and therefore paraphyletic group of marine hydrophilus angiosperms which evolved three to four times from land plants towards an aquatic and marine existence. Their taxonomy is not yet solved on the species level and below due to their reduced morphology. So far also molecular data did not completely solve the phylogenetic relationships. Thus, this group challenges a new definition for what a species is. Also their physiology is not well understood due to difficult experimental in situ and in vitro conditions. There remain several open questions concerning how seagrasses adapted secondarily to the marine environment. Here probably exciting adaptation solutions will be detected. Physiological adaptations seem to be more important than morphological ones. Seagrasses contain several compounds in their secondary metabolism in which they differ from terrestrial plants and also not known from other taxonomic groups. Some of these compounds might be of interest for commercial purposes. Therefore their metabolite contents constitute another treasure of the ocean. This paper gives an introduction into some of the most interesting aspects from phylogenetical, physiological, and metabolic points of view.

The economic potential of beach-cast seagrass – Cymodocea nodosa: a promising renewable source of chicoric acid

“…However, the phenolic secondary chemistry in the seagrasses appears not to have been fundamentally modified by this adaptation, as shown by the frequent occurrence of caffeic derivatives (Achamlale et al 2009, Nuissier et al 2010, Papenbrock 2012. Compared with terrestrial plants, using dead biomass of seagrass as a source of phytochemicals offers some particular advantages.…”

Bioactive natural products from marine angiosperms: abundance and functions

“…An overview of seagrass metabolism, shows that the basic pool of secondary metabolites is similar to their terrestrial relatives from which they have evolved 3 . The biosynthesis of most secondary metabolites begins with a relatively small group of compounds, which are modified into an unlimited number of compounds through various synthesis pathways.…”

<i>Zostera noltii</i> extract lowers blood glucose and restores vascular function in diabetic rats

“…Z. noltii is rich in phenolic compounds and flavonoids such as, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, rosmarinic acid zosteric acid, apigenin, diosmetin, luteolin and luteolin-7-O-glucoside (Lamaison et al, 1990;Zeljan and Misko, 2000;Achamlale et al, 2009;Newberry et al, 2011;Sato et al, 2011). Additionally, crude extracts of seagrasses are shown to exert antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic and anti-cancer activities (Papenbrock, 2012). Moreover, we have shown that total extract of another seagrass, Posidonia oceanica has antioxidant, antidiabetic and vasoprotective effects (Gokce and Haznedaroglu, 2008).…”