Natural Products from Bryophytes: From Basic Biology to Biotechnological Applications

Abstract

Natural products from plants have served mankind in a wide range of applications, such as medicines, perfumes, or flavoring agents. For this reason, synthesis, regulation and function of plant-derived chemicals, as well as the evolution of metabolic diversity, has attracted researchers all around the world. In particular, vascular plants have been subject to such analyses due to prevalent characteristics such as appearance, fragrance, and ecological settings. In contrast, bryophytes, constituting the second largest group of plants in terms of species number, have been mostly overlooked in this regard, potentially due to their seemingly tiny, simple and obscure nature. However, the identification of highly interesting chemicals from bryophytes with potential for biotechnological exploitation is changing this perception. Bryophytes offer a high degree of biochemical complexity, as a consequence of their ecological and genetic diversification, which enable them to prosper in various, often very harsh habitats. The number of bioactive compounds isolated from bryophytes is growing rapidly. The rapidly increasing wealth of bryophyte genetics opens doors to functional and comparative genomics approaches, including disentangling of the biosynthesis of potentially interesting chemicals, mining for novel gene families and tracing the evolutionary history of metabolic pathways. Throughout the last decades, the moss Physcomitrella (Physcomitrium patens) has moved from being a model plant together with Marchantia polymorpha in fundamental biology into an attractive host for the production of biotechnologically relevant compounds such as biopharmaceuticals. In the future, bryophytes like the moss P. patens might also be attractive candidates for the production of novel bryophytederived chemicals of commercial interest. This review provides a comprehensive overview of natural product research in bryophytes from different perspectives together with biotechnological advances throughout the last decade.

Modern Use of Bryophytes as a Source of Secondary Metabolites

“…However, it is now possible to reproduce bryophytes massively with less environmental impact. For this purpose, in vitro cultures can be used, which enable the mass production of biomass with the use of various types of photobioreactors [91]. There are several articles describing the practicalities and problems of in vitro bryophyte cultivation [148][149][150].…”

“…The results of the research show that the extracts of certain species of mosses and liverworts do not exhibit these properties, despite their antibacterial effects [73,79,80]. Such selectivity may have industrial or medical applications [47,[91][92][93]. On the other hand, the isolated antifungal substances show activity against numerous pathogenic fungi (Table 5, Figure 3) [75,[88][89][90][94][95][96][97].…”

Assessment of the Biological Effects of Pellia endiviifolia and its Constituents in Vitro

“…For example, marchantin A, isolated from Marchantia species, is one of the well-studied bis-bibenzyls, whose antibacterial and antifungal activities have been extensively demonstrated. 7 Furthermore, the bis-bibenzyls of riccardin and perrottetin types isolated from the liverwort Lunularia cruciata exhibited cytotoxic activity against the A549 lung cancer cell line. 8 Also, perrottetin F and metabolites obtained by its biotransformation by Aspergillus niger showed promising antimicrobial activity and antiproliferative effects on human lung carcinoma.…”

Anti-Inflammatory Activity of Bryophytes Extracts in LPS-Stimulated RAW264.7 Murine Macrophages

“…Bryophytes have shown many ethnomedicinal applications such as for the treatment of skin diseases, inflammation, microbial infections, and many others [ 1 , 2 ]. Indeed, bryophytes produce important specialized metabolites, particularly terpenoids (mono-, sesqui-, and diterpenoids) and aromatic compounds (mainly flavonoids, (bis)bibenzyls) as well as lipids, which have shown important biological activities [ 3 ]. Although bryophytes are a valuable source of bioactive molecules, their biological properties and chemical constituents remain relatively unexplored.…”