Highlights of marine natural products having parallel scaffolds found from marine-derived bacteria, sponges, and tunicates

Abstract

Marine-derived bacteria are a prolific source of a wide range of structurally diverse natural products. This review, dedicated to Professor William Fenical, begins by showcasing many seminal discoveries made at the University of California San Diego from marine-derived actinomycetes. Discussed early on is the 20-year journey of discovery and advancement of the seminal actinomycetes natural product salinosporamide A into Phase III anticancer clinical trials. There are many fascinating parallels discussed that were gleaned from the comparative literature of marine sponge, tunicate, and bacteria-derived natural products. Identifying bacterial biosynthetic machinery housed in sponge and tunicate holobionts through both cultureindependent and culture-dependent approaches is another important and expanding subject that is analyzed. Work reviewed herein also evaluates the hypotheses that many marine invertebrate-derived natural products are biosynthesised by associated or symbiotic bacteria. The insights and outcomes from metagenomic sequencing and synthetic biology to expand molecule discovery continue to provide exciting outcomes and they are predicted to be the source of the next generation of novel marine natural product chemical scaffolds.

Marine Streptomyces sp. Isolated From the Brazilian Endemic Tunicate Euherdmania sp. Produces Dihydroeponemycin and Analogs With Potent Antiglioma Activity

“…However, if a broader concept of diversity is considered, one that includes genetic and chemical diversities, it becomes even more evident that this surface has hardly been scratched (Mora et al, 2011;Snelgrove, 2016). Indeed, from a chemical diversity perspective, the possibilities of exploring this multitude of molecules are virtually limitless, once a marine organism, such as an invertebrate, may be contemplated as a complex ecosystem in itself, with billions of associated microbial cells interacting and responding to biotic and abiotic factors through the production of their metabolites to warrant the holobiont's homeostasis (Cheng et al, 2020;McCauley et al, 2020).…”

The Essentials of Marine Biotechnology

“…Several techniques, such as diffusion chambers (Kaeberlein et al, 2002), the iChip (Nichols et al, 2010), as well as the recently developed miniaturized culture chips (Chianese et al, 2018) have been employed to address microbial cultivation problems. Another reason preventing the wider valorization of marine microorganisms is that some strains cannot exist in nature without their symbionts: often microorganisms that are associated or in symbiosis with marine macroorganisms are the true metabolic source of marine natural products (McCauley et al, 2020). To uncover the potential of these species, many microbiological studies are focusing on bulkcommunity dynamics and how the performance of ecosystems is supported and influenced by individual species and timespecies interaction (Kouzuma and Watanabe, 2014).…”

Symbioses of Cyanobacteria in Marine Environments: Ecological Insights and Biotechnological Perspectives

“…However, the structurally similar molecule dehydrodidemnin B (aplidine, Figure 2 ), produced by the Mediterranean tunicate Aplidium albicans , exhibited more potent antiproliferative activity and less toxic nonspecific effects. This compound reached the phase II trials as anticancer drug against medullary thyroid carcinoma, renal-cell carcinoma, and melanoma [ 257 , 258 ]. The volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are bioactive metabolites produced by cyanobacteria and their in vitro biosynthesis is influenced by cocultivation conditions with symbiotic microorganisms.…”