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Seaweeds early development: detrimental effects of desiccation and attenuation by algal extracts

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Abstract

The effects of desiccation on the early development stages of Mazzaella laminarioides, Scytosiphon lomentaria and Lessonia nigrescens, algal species with different patterns of distribution across the intertidal zone, were examined in the laboratory. In addition, the protective effect against desiccation was evaluated using algal extracts, including those from Porphyra columbina, a macroalga tolerant to desiccation that lives in the uppermost part of the intertidal zone. Our results showed that M. laminarioides displayed the highest resistance to daily desiccation, followed by S. lomentaria, whereas L. nigrescens was the most susceptible. Spores from L. nigrescens exposed to desiccation, although being able to germinate, ceased further post-germination development. In addition, our results showed that all species exposed to extracts from desiccated P. columbina successfully completed their development and strongly suggest the occurrence of compounds with protective properties that help in attenuating the stress caused by desiccation. Finally, our results indicate that the magnitude of the effects generated by desiccation on the early algal development is related to the position of the species in the intertidal zone, and that the protective effects of P. columbina extracts reveal an exceptional metabolism of this species under desiccation stress.

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Abbreviations

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

RWC:

Relative water content

UPLC–ESI–MS:

Ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled to an electrospray ionization-mass spectrometer

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Acknowledgments

Funding provided by FONDECYT 11085019 to LC. Additional funding comes from FONDAP 1501-0001 (CONICYT) to the Center for Advanced Studies in Ecology and Biodiversity (CASEB) Program 7 to JC and FONDECYT 3110034 to CS. GP acknowledges the Volkswagen Foundation for a Lichtenberg Professorship. We are especially grateful to Luciano Hiriart-Bertrand, Camilo López-Cristoffanini and Jessica Beltrán for image acquisition and Verónica Flores for valuable suggestions on the culture conditions developed in this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Ecología y Biodiversidad, Facultad de Ecología y Recursos Naturales, Universidad Andrés Bello, República 470, 8370251, Santiago, Chile

    Loretto Contreras-Porcia & Daniela Thomas

  2. Departamento de Ecología, Center for Advanced Studies in Ecology and Biodiversity (CASEB), Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, 6513677, Santiago, Chile

    Loretto Contreras-Porcia, Daniela Thomas, Camille Sordet, Aníbal Contreras, Ana Lafuente, María R. Flores-Molina & Juan A. Correa

  3. Escuela de Biotecnología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Santo Tomás, 8340518, Santiago, Chile

    Sebastián Callejas

  4. Institute for Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, Bioorganic Analytics, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Lessing Str. 8, 07743, Jena, Germany

    Georg Pohnert

  5. Instituto de Ciencias Marinas y Limnológicas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Austral de Chile, Casilla 567, Valdivia, Chile

    María R. Flores-Molina

Authors
  1. Loretto Contreras-Porcia
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  2. Sebastián Callejas
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Correspondence to Loretto Contreras-Porcia.

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Contreras-Porcia, L., Callejas, S., Thomas, D. et al. Seaweeds early development: detrimental effects of desiccation and attenuation by algal extracts. Planta 235, 337–348 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00425-011-1512-y

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