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Galactolipids rather than phlorotannins as herbivore deterrents in the brown seaweed Fucus vesiculosus

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Abstract

The first investigation of seaweed chemical defense against herbivores involved the brown seaweed Fucus vesiculosus and suggested defense via phlorotannins. The first demonstration of seaweed induction of secondary metabolites in response to herbivory also involved the genus Fucus and assumed a defensive function for phlorotannins. Many other investigations correlate herbivore feeding preference with changing levels of phlorotannins in this genus and others, but few directly test the effects of phlorotannins. No studies have assessed Fucus chemical defenses using bioassay-guided separation to investigate the complete complement of compounds deterring herbivores. We investigated the deterrence of F. vesiculosus chemical extracts using herbivore bioassays to guide our chemical investigations. Although crude extracts from F. vesiculosus strongly deterred feeding by the sea urchin Arbacia punctulata, phlorotannins from this extract did not deter feeding at 2× or 4× natural concentration by dry mass. Feeding deterrence was due to: (1) a polar galactolipid in the ethyl acetate-soluble extract, and (2) a non-phenolic compound, or compounds, in the water-soluble extract. Although this is the first evidence of galactolipids deterring herbivores, such defenses could be geographically and taxonomically widespread. The galactolipid we discovered in Fucus occurs in marine dinoflagellates, and a related metabolite that deters herbivory has recently been discovered in a tropical green seaweed. We were unable to identify the second deterrent compound, but deterrence occurred in a fraction containing carbohydrates, including sulfated sugars, but no phlorotannins. Given the polarity of these chemical deterrents, they could co-occur with and confound bioassays of phlorotannins if investigators test phlorotannin-containing algal extracts without further purification.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by NSF grants OCE 95–29784 (MEH) and CHE 98–07098 and CHE 01–11270 (WF); additional support was provided by a dissertation fellowship from the UNC-Chapel Hill graduate school to M. S. D. and by the Harry and Linda Teasley endowment to the Georgia Institute of Technology. Comments from Julia Kubanek, Peter Steinberg, and an anonymous reviewer improved the manuscript. Thanks to Phil Levin for providing Fucus from Maine.

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  1. Michael S. Deal

    Present address: Biopraxis, 10655 Sorento Valley Road, Suite 200, San Diego, CA 92191, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Marine Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Morehead City, NC 28557, USA

    Michael S. Deal

  2. School of Biology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0230, USA

    Mark E. Hay

  3. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California — San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0204, USA

    Dean Wilson & William Fenical

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  1. Michael S. Deal
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Correspondence to Mark E. Hay.

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Deal, M.S., Hay, M.E., Wilson, D. et al. Galactolipids rather than phlorotannins as herbivore deterrents in the brown seaweed Fucus vesiculosus . Oecologia 136, 107–114 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-003-1242-3

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