Ecological Impact on Fatty Acid Composition of Mosses from Two Biodiversity Hotspots of Hungary and India

Abstract

Mosses, the pioneer member among the terrestrial plants, acquired remarkable adaptive advantages for their habitat transition and thus enjoy a global distribution even under diverse ecological conditions. Lipids are assumed to play a significant role in the development of various adaptive strategies that favour evolution. The present paper is an attempt to understand the possible reorientation of fatty acid machinery by the cellular system of the mosses that can be relevant in view of their eco-geographical diversity and distribution. Six abundant mosses were collected from dry, low lands of Hungarian plain, and six representative species belonging to similar systematic positions were collected from high-altitude, humid places of Eastern Himalayan Biodiversity Hotspot depending on their availability for experimentation. Total lipids of the plant samples were extracted, and the fatty acid compositions were analysed using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry and gas chromatography–flame ionizing detector. Chemical analyses revealed a diverse array of saturated, monounsaturated, long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in Eastern Himalayan mosses but abundance of saturated fatty acids in Hungarian mosses. One-way analysis of variance and principal component analysis based on various parameters of total fatty acid fingerprints clearly distinguished these two groups of mosses. Thus, this investigation concluded that fatty acid dynamicity has a possible role for adaptation of mosses under different climatic conditions.