A viable cell-free extract of the marine tunicate Ecteinascidia turbinata has been generated that is capable of transforming amino acids into the ecteinascidin antitumor alkaloids. Tyrosine and cysteine were identified as two building blocks used in ecteinascidin production. The enzyme preparations ...

Bryostatin 1, a natural product anticancer agent isolated from a marine bryozoan, has been shown in tissue culture to activate protein kinase C. This agent has recently undergone Phase I testing in humans given either as a bolus i.v. injection or a continuous infusion. To understand how bryostatin 1...

Marine invertebrates have proven to be a rich source of secondary metabolites. The growing recognition that marine microorganisms associated with invertebrate hosts are involved in the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites offers new alternatives for the discovery and development of marine natural p...

The close association between marine invertebrates, zooxanthellae, and numerous bacteria gives rise to the question of the identity of the actual producer of secondary metabolites. In fall of 2005, a widespread bleaching event occurred throughout the Caribbean Sea in which some colonies of the gorgo...

We recently reported that the biosynthesis of fuscol, a diterpene from the octocoral Eunicea fusca, is inducible by the application of plant signaling factors such as salicylic acid to the coral's algal symbiont. In this study, an mRNA differential display approach has been employed with the di...

Gorgonian corals continue to provide a wealth of novel structures, many of which exhibit potentially useful biological activity. Notably, the families Briareidae, Gorgoniidae and Plexauridae have been demonstrated to contain a wide variety of natural products including steroids, acetogenins, sesquit...

This study examined the microbiota associated with the marine azooxanthellate octocorals Leptogorgia minimata, Swiftia exertia, and Iciligorgia schrammi collected from moderate depths (45 m). Traditional aerobic plate culture, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), and molecular identification o...

Novel lipidyl pseudopteranoids, lipidyl pseudopteranes A-F (1-6), have been isolated from the soft coral Pseudopterogorgia acerosa collected from the Bahamas. Structure elucidation of the six new compounds was based on 1D and 2D NMR data and mass spectrometry, and a biomimetic synthesis of 1 from ps...

An enzyme-based assay has been developed and utilized to confirm the production of formaldehyde in the dealkylation of sterol side chains in a marine sponge. The enzyme used in the assay, formaldehyde dehydrogenase, is NAD+ dependent, and the assay measures the production of NADH by determining the ...

LC-MS/MS-based screening of the dichloromethane extract of the gorgonian coral Pseudopterogorgia acerosa led to the isolation of a novel bis(pseudopterane) amine (1). The structural assignment of 1 was achieved by 1D and 2D NMR and mass spectrometry analysis. A biomimetic synthesis of 1 and the know...

Marine diterpene glycosides (MDGs) respresent a small but highly significant group of the much larger class of marine diterpenes. The three well-studied examples of MDGs are eleutherobins, pseudopterosins and fuscosides, all of which exhibit extremely promising biological activity. The eleutherobins...