Plant–Cyanobacteria Symbiosis: From Morphology to Practical Uses
A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Ecology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 August 2024 | Viewed by 303
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Plant–cyanobacterial symbiosis is a diverse and never-ending source of new hypotheses and research themes. The symbiosis between plants (aquatic and terrestrial) and algae/microalgae with a few genera of cyanobacteria is a very ancient process with benefits for one or both organisms. The establishment of those symbioses leads to morphological structures on the plants (host) that act as interfaces and enable co-dependence throughout evolution. In general, the host provide carbohydrates and the nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria nitrogen. The high content of nitrogen makes those symbioses very competitive in nitrogen-deficient environments, which is useful for producing biofertilizer. The discovery of the recognition signals and their pathway or pathways can be very important when developing artificial cyanobacterial symbioses with crops alongside the high content in nitrogen. However, other applications of these symbioses are the phytoremediation of contaminated water and soils, as food for humans and animals, or even as sources of metabolites with bioactivities, among many others useful applications.
This Special Issue of Plants will accept original research papers, perspectives, hypotheses, opinions, reviews, modeling approaches, and methods regarding all the topics linked with plant–cyanobacterial symbioses and their potential applications.
Dr. Ana Luisa Pereira
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
Azolla; Fern; Phytochemistry; Biological activity
Planned Papers
The below list represents only planned manuscripts. Some of these manuscripts have not been received by the Editorial Office yet. Papers submitted to MDPI journals are subject to peer-review.
Title: Phytochemistry and bioactivity from the aquatic fern Azolla: A review
Ana L. Pereira 1,2,*and Vitor M. Vasconcelos 1,3
1 CIIMAR/CIMAR-Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, University of Porto, 4450-208 Matosinhos, Portugal; [email protected]
2 Independent Researcher
3 FCUP-Faculty of Sciences, Department of Biology, University of Porto, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal; [email protected]
* Correspondence: [email protected]
Abstract: The fern Azolla sp. is an aquatic and floating fern belonging to the Family Azollaceae with a worldwide distribution in quiet fresh waters from tropical to temperate regions. Azolla is a unique fern due to their permanent symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing cyanobacteria Anabaena azollae. This cyanobacterium provides to fern all the nitrogen compounds that it needs to their metabolism. Although considered an invasive species, this Azolla-Anabaena plant can be used as biofertilizer, phytoremediation of domestic and industrial wastewater and as animal or human food. Since the 16th century that this fern is annotated as having medicinal properties against sore throat, cough or against bacteria. However, the research regarding the isolation of chemical compounds and their bioactivity is still scarce. The research made so far reveals the presence of phenolic compounds, terpenes, volatiles among others, but the knowledge of both primary and secondary metabolites and their bioactivity is still incomplete. This review deals with the present knowledge of the phytochemistry of Azolla and will gave an insight for their use in population in underdeveloped countries or to find new compounds or sources of bioactive compounds.
Keywords: Azolla; Fern; Phytochemistry; Biological activity
