91-Biotechnological-potential-of-North-Sea-salt-marsh-plants—a-review-of-traditional-knowledge

JournalofBiotechnology70(1999)77–84BiotechnologicalpotentialofNorthSeasaltmarshplants—areviewoftraditionalknowledgeGerdLiebezeita,*,ThorstenD.Ku¨nnemannb,GunnarGadbaForschungszentrumTerramare,Schleusenstraße1,D-26382Wilhelmsha�en,GermanybFBBiologie,Uni�ersita¨tOldenburg,Postfach2503,D-26111Oldenburg,GermanyReceived13October1998;receivedinrevisedform1December1998;accepted22December1998AbstractExtremeenvironmentsarecharacterisedbywidevariationsinphysicalfactors.TidalflatsandtheiradjacentsaltmarshesalongtheNorthSeacoastexperiencethistypeofvariabilityonadaily,seasonalandannualbasis.Plantsandanimalslivingintheseextremeenvironmentshavetoadapttothese,attimesrapid,changes.Thiscanbedonebydevelopingspecificphysiologicalresponseswhichoftenencompassthesynthesisofunusualchemicals.Anumberofsaltmarshplantshavetraditionallybeenusedformedical,nutritionalorevenindustrialpurposes.Here,examplesarepresentedfortheseplants.©1999ElsevierScienceB.V.Allrightsreserved.Keywords:Extremeenvironments;Saltmarshplants;Semiterrestrial1.IntroductionOrganismsthrivinginextremehabitatshavedevelopedanumberofmechanismstocopewiththeirphysicalenvironment.Thesemayincludea.o.theproductionofantifreezecompoundsorheatshockproteinsinfishandotherorganisms(SicherlandYang,1995;Bergeretal.,1996),specificenzymesystemscapableofoperatingattemperaturesashighas113°C(Blo¨chletal.,1997)oratdeepseapressures(Huberetal.,1989;GrossandJaenicke,1994).Therefore,consider-ablebiotechnologicalinterestintheseenviron-mentshasrecentlybeenexpressed(Jensen,1993;Pennisi,1997;Gross,1998).Extremeenvironmentsareusuallydefinedasbeingextremeinoneorseveralphysicalparame-terssuchastemperature(e.g.hydrothermalvents,ice-coveredregions),salinity(hypersalinelagoons,DeadSea)orpressure(deepsea).However,inthesesystemstheexternalvariablesremainrela-tivelystableovertimeandareextremeonlybyhumanstandards.Ontheotherhand,marinesystemswithahighvariabilityintemperature,salinityorradiationcanalsobefound.Theseincludea.o.saltmarshes,tidalflatsandmangroveecosystems