Anti-metabolites general discussion

Metabolites from cyanobacteria are generally of amino acid or polyketide origin and frequently show potent biological activity. The series of dolastatin metabolites, exemplified by dolastatin-10 (Structure 2.18), are linear peptides which show potent cytotoxic activity and are of clinical interest as anti-tumour agents. Originally isolated in very low yield from the Indian Ocean sea hare Dolabella auricularia, dolastatins are now known to be cyanobacterial products.43,44 The discovery of a microbial source for these pharmaceutically important compounds will facilitate study of their biosynthesis and could potentially lead to the production of structural analogues by provision of modified biosynthetic precursors to the cultivar. As discussed below and in Section VI, toxic secondary metabolites from cyanobacteria have often been implicated in the chemical defenses of sea hares.45"17... 

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