Bioactive ultraviolet-absorbing compounds derived from cyanobacteria and microalgae

Hakuto Kageyama; Rungaroon Waditee-Sirisattha; Hakuto Kageyama; Rungaroon Waditee-Sirisattha

doi:10.3934/molsci.2025002

AIMS Molecular Science

2025, Volume 12, Issue 1: 26-31. doi: 10.3934/molsci.2025002

Previous Article Next Article

Editorial Special Issues

Bioactive ultraviolet-absorbing compounds derived from cyanobacteria and microalgae

Hakuto Kageyama ^{1,2
,
,},
Rungaroon Waditee-Sirisattha ^{3
,
,}

1.
Graduate School of Environmental and Human Sciences, Meijo University, 1-501 Shiogamaguchi, Tempaku-ku, Nagoya, 468-8502, Japan
2.
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, Meijo University, 1-501 Shiogamaguchi, Tempaku-ku, Nagoya, Aichi 468-8502, Japan
3.
Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Payathai Road, Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330, Thailand

Received: 03 December 2024 Accepted: 07 January 2025 Published: 09 January 2025

Cyanobacteria are distributed in diverse environments on Earth. They have evolved to synthesize a variety of secondary metabolites to combat and serve as barriers to protect them from distinct environments. Some of these metabolites and compounds exhibit useful physiological activities and are expected to be applied to a wide range of fields, including medicine, agriculture, food, and the cosmetics industry. Due to their photosynthetic ability, cyanobacteria are promising sources for sustainable production of these useful substances. It is expected that future research will lead to the development and efficient production of new compounds. These resources may provide great benefits to our lives and to the environment. This editorial provides an overview of the ultraviolet (UV)-absorbing substances produced by cyanobacteria and discusses future prospects.
- cyanobacteria,
- microalgae,
- UV-absorbing compounds,
- bioactive compounds,
- mycosporine-like amino acids,
- scytonemin,
- saclipin
Citation: Hakuto Kageyama, Rungaroon Waditee-Sirisattha. Bioactive ultraviolet-absorbing compounds derived from cyanobacteria and microalgae[J]. AIMS Molecular Science, 2025, 12(1): 26-31. doi: 10.3934/molsci.2025002

Related Papers:

Abstract

Cyanobacteria are distributed in diverse environments on Earth. They have evolved to synthesize a variety of secondary metabolites to combat and serve as barriers to protect them from distinct environments. Some of these metabolites and compounds exhibit useful physiological activities and are expected to be applied to a wide range of fields, including medicine, agriculture, food, and the cosmetics industry. Due to their photosynthetic ability, cyanobacteria are promising sources for sustainable production of these useful substances. It is expected that future research will lead to the development and efficient production of new compounds. These resources may provide great benefits to our lives and to the environment. This editorial provides an overview of the ultraviolet (UV)-absorbing substances produced by cyanobacteria and discusses future prospects.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI Grants 24K08623, the Research Fund of the Naito Science and Engineering Foundation (to H.K.) and Thailand Science research and Innovation Fund Chulalongkorn University (FOOD_FF_68_121_2300_022) (to R.W.S).

Conflict of interest

All authors declare no conflicts of interest in this paper.

References

[1]	Kageyama H, Waditee-Sirisattha R (2018) Mycosporine-like amino acids as multifunctional secondary metabolites in cyanobacteria: From biochemical to application aspects. Studies in natural products chemistry . Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier 153-194. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-64179-3.00005-0
[2]	Balskus EP, Walsh CT (2010) The genetic and molecular basis for sunscreen biosynthesis in cyanobacteria. Science 329: 1653-1656. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1193637
[3]	Kageyama H, Waditee-Sirisattha R (2022) Mycosporine-like amino acids and scytonemin: Regulations, roles for adaptation of cyanobacteria to the environment, and potential applications. Cyanobacterial physiology: From fundamentals to biotechnology . SanDiego, CA, USA: Academic Press (An imprint of Elsevier) 101-111. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-96106-6.00016-2
[4]	Kageyama H, Waditee-Sirisattha R (2019) Antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and anti-aging properties of mycosporine-like amino acids: molecular and cellular mechanisms in the protection of skin-aging. Mar Drugs 17: 222. https://doi.org/10.3390/md17040222
[5]	de la Coba F, Aguilera J, Figueroa FL, et al. (2009) Antioxidant activity of mycosporine-like amino acids isolated from three red macroalgae and one marine lichen. J Appl Phycol 21: 161-169. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10811-008-9345-1
[6]	Jin H, Kim S, Lee D, et al. (2023) Efficient production of mycosporine-like amino acids, natural sunscreens, in Yarrowia lipolytica. Biotechnol Biof Biop 16: 162. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13068-023-02415-y
[7]	Park BR, Jeong CR, Cha M, et al. (2024) Sustainable production of shinorine from agricultural wastes using engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae expressing novel d-alanine-d-alanine ligase from Pseudonocardia pini. J Agric Food Chem 72: 22710-22721. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.4c05664
[8]	Kageyama H, Waditee-Sirisattha R (2023) Distribution, biosynthetic regulation, and bioactivities of mycosporine-2-glycine, a rare UV-protective mycosporine-like amino acid. AIMS Mol Sci 10: 295-310. https://doi.org/10.3934/molsci.2023017
[9]	Kim S, Park BG, Jin H, et al. (2023) Efficient production of natural sunscreens shinorine, porphyra-334, and mycosporine-2-glycine in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Metab Eng 78: 137-147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymben.2023.05.009
[10]	Figueroa FL, Castro-Varela P, Vega J, et al. (2024) Novel synthetic UV screen compounds inspired in mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs): Antioxidant capacity, photoprotective properties and toxicity. J Photoch Photobiol B 261: 113050. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jphotobiol.2024.113050
[11]	Garcia-Pichel F, Castenholz RW (1991) Characterization and biological implications of scytonemin, a cyanobacterial sheath pigment. J Phycol 27: 395-409. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0022-3646.1991.00395.x
[12]	Sinha RP, Klisch M, Gröniger A, et al. (2001) Responses of aquatic algae and cyanobacteria to solar UV-B. Plant Ecology 154: 219-236. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012986500543
[13]	Proteau PJ, Gerwick WH, Garcia-Pichel F, et al. (1993) The structure of scytonemin, an ultraviolet sunscreen pigment from the sheaths of cyanobacteria. Experientia 49: 825-829. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01923559
[14]	Kageyama H, Waditee-Sirisattha R (2018) Cyanobacterial UV sunscreen: Biosynthesis, regulation, and application. Sunscreens: source, formulations, efficacy and recommendations . NOVA Science Publishers 1-28.
[15]	Wada N, Sakamoto T, Matsugo S (2013) Multiple roles of photosynthetic and sunscreen pigments in cyanobacteria focusing on the oxidative stress. Metabolites 3: 463-483. https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo3020463
[16]	Uchida Y, Maoka T, Palaga T, et al. (2023) Identification of desiccation stress-inducible antioxidative and antiglycative ultraviolet-absorbing oxylipins, saclipin A and saclipin B, in an edible cyanobacterium Aphanothece sacrum. J Agric Food Chem 71: 16137-16147. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.3c05152
[17]	Gerwick WH, Moghaddam M, Hamberg M (1991) Oxylipin metabolism in the red alga Gracilariopsis lemaneiformis: Mechanism of formation of vicinal dihydroxy fatty acids. Arch Biochem Biophys 290: 436-444. https://doi.org/10.1016/0003-9861(91)90563-x
[18]	Uchida Y, Honda M, Waditee-Sirisattha R, et al. (2024) Photo- and thermo-chemical properties and biological activities of saclipins, UV-absorbing compounds derived from the cyanobacterium Aphanothece sacrum. ACS Agric Sci Technol 4: 1260-1270. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsagscitech.4c00571

Reader Comments

Your name:*

Email:*
© 2025 the Author(s), licensee AIMS Press. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)