Front Cover: Morphological and Chemical Diversity within Japanese Laurencia Complex (Rhodomelaceae, Ceramiales, Rhodophyta) (Chem. Biodiversity 10/2024)

Front Cover. Since Irie and his coworkers discovered the first unique brominated C15-acetogenin named laurencin from a Japanese species of the red algal genus Laurencia, hundreds of halogenated secondary metabolites, particularly terpenoids and C15-acetogenins not found in any terrestrial organisms, have been isolated in Laurencia to date. The diverse types of halogenated secondary metabolites exhibit various biological activities, such as antimicrobial, insecticidal, feeding-deterrent, cytotoxic, and antifouling activities. Species discrimination in Laurencia is complicated by a high degree of morphological variation within individual species; however, the major halogenated secondary metabolites produced tend to be species-specific, and these compounds can be used as chemical markers for chemical systematics (chemotaxonomy). Significant morphological features and all chemical compositions that have been reported in the Japanese species of Laurencia to date are described and discussed by Yukimasa Yamagishi and co-workers in their review article number 10.1002/cbdv.202400833.