Marine natural products organisms

A continuous series of very excellent reviews on marine natural products by D. J. Faulkner has appeared in Natural Products Reports (2-6), covering all aspects of the literature on marine natural products, organized phylogenetically. Excellent reviews on Marine Alkaloids and Related Compounds (7) and Recent Developments in the Field of Marine Natural Products with Emphasis on Biologically Active Compounds (5) were written by W. Fenical and H. C. Krebs, respectively. Besides these reviews, numerous books dealing with general or specialized topics in marine natural products research have appeared in recent years (9-13). Biosynthetic studies on marine natural products were recently reviewed by M. J. Garson (14). 

Several analyses of known marine natural products according to the phylum of the source organism have revealed the richest sources of marine secondary metabolism (Figure It is clear from the data that marine algae and... 

Figure 3 Distribution of marine natural products reported in 1997 according to the phylum of the source organism...

The underlying assumption driving marine natural products chemistry research is that secondary metabolites produced by marine plants, animals, and microorganisms will be substantially different from those found in traditional terrestrial sources simply because marine life forms are very different from terrestrial life forms and the habitats which they occupy present very different physiological and ecological challenges. The expectation is that marine organisms will utilize completely unique biosynthetic pathways or exploit unique variations on well established pathways. The marine natural products chemistry research conducted to date has provided many examples that support these expectations. 

Mickel, S.J., Sedelmeier, G.H., Niederer, D. etal. (2004) Large-Scale Synthesis of the Anti-Cancer Marine Natural Product (-P)-Disco derm olide. Part 1 Synthetic Strategy and Preparation of a Common Precursor. Organic Process Research Development, 8, 92-100. 

The first step in discovering a marine natural product lead compound involves accumulating collections of the source organisms. Ideally the collections would include as many species as possible collected from a large number of sites reflecting the wide diversity of habitats found in the world s oceans. The development of SCUBA and both manned and remotely operated (ROV) submersibles has provided the technology required to effectively collect algae and invertebrate specimens from most marine habitats. Consequently, the major issue... 

Baker BJ (1996) Carboline and isoquinoline alkaloids from marine organisms. In Pelletier SW (ed) Alkaloids chemical and biological perspectives, vol 10. Pergamon, Oxford, pp 357 107 Baldauf SL (2003) The deep roots of eukaryotes. Science 300 1703-1706 Blunt JW, Copp BR, Munro MHG, Northcote PT, Prinsep MR (2006) Marine natural products. Nat Prod Rep 23 26-78... 

Laturnus F, Wiencke C, Kloser H (1996) Antarctic macroalgae - sources of volatile halogenated organic compounds. Mar Environ Res 41 169-181 Lebar ML, Heimbegner JL, Baker BJ (2007) Cold-water marine natural products. Nat Prod Rep 24 774-797... 

The study of marine natural products has great possibilities for new products. Thus, Paul Scheuer from Hawaii studied bioactive compounds from mollusks and other marine sources. Luigi Minale, Raffaele Riccio and Maria lorizzi from Italy, conducted a comprehensive research on marine steroidal glycosides. Joel Kashman from Tel-Aviv University investigated on the biologically active natural products from marine organisms. 

---