Plastids of Marine Phytoplankton Produce Bioactive Pigments and Lipids

Marine Drugs

Parisa Heydarizadeh²  Isabelle Poirier³  Damien Loizeau³  Lionel Ulmann¹  Virginie Mimouni¹  Benoît Schoefs² 

[1] MicroMar, Mer Molécules Santé/Sea Molecules & Health, IUML-FR 3473 CNRS, LUNAM, University of Le Mans, IUT Génie Biologique, Laval Cedex 53020, France; E-Mails:;MicroMar, Mer Molécules Santé/Sea Molecules & Health, IUML-FR 3473 CNRS, LUNAM, University of Le Mans, Avenue Olivier Messiaen, Le Mans 72000, France; E-Mails:;Microorganisms, Metals and Toxicity, Cnam SITI CASER STM, BP 324, Cherbourg Cedex 50103, France; E-Mails:

关键词: plastids;    carotenoids;    cyanobacteria;    microalgae;    polyunsaturated fatty acids;    tetrapyrroles;   

DOI  :  10.3390/md11093425

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Phytoplankton is acknowledged to be a very diverse source of bioactive molecules. These compounds play physiological roles that allow cells to deal with changes of the environmental constrains. For example, the diversity of light harvesting pigments allows efficient photosynthesis at different depths in the seawater column. Identically, lipid composition of cell membranes can vary according to environmental factors. This, together with the heterogenous evolutionary origin of taxa, makes the chemical diversity of phytoplankton compounds much larger than in terrestrial plants. This contribution is dedicated to pigments and lipids synthesized within or from plastids/photosynthetic membranes. It starts with a short review of cyanobacteria and microalgae phylogeny. Then the bioactivity of pigments and lipids (anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-mutagenic, anti-cancer, anti-obesity, anti-allergic activities, and cardio- neuro-, hepato- and photoprotective effects), alone or in combination, is detailed. To increase the cellular production of bioactive compounds, specific culture conditions may be applied (e.g., high light intensity, nitrogen starvation). Regardless of the progress made in blue biotechnologies, the production of bioactive compounds is still limited. However, some examples of large scale production are given, and perspectives are suggested in the final section.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.