Unique Chemistry and Biology of Marine Sponges and Marine-Derived Fungi Metabolites

Roberto G. S. Berlinck, Instituto de Quimica de Sao Carlos, Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil

The oceans present the richest biodiversity of the globe, comprising two thirds of biological species diversity. Such an evolutionary trend naturally attracted the attention of chemists and biotechnologists motivated to find and sustainably exploit the oceans’ natural resources towards the benefit of human health and life quality. The finding of anti-cancer, antibiotic and anti-inflammatory agents from marine organisms further enhanced the research on marine natural products, even though some marine regions still remain poorly investigated. The Brazilian coastline is included in the areas still needing a considerable investigation effort in order to evidence potentiality of its marine resources.

Our research group has focused on the discovery of bioactive marine invertebrate metabolites from the Brazilian coastline during several years and, more recently, started investigating the chemistry and biological activities of marine-derived microorganisms. Although a large number of major secondary metabolites (natural products) have been isolated from both marine invertebrates and microorganisms, the investigation of minor, structurally unique and biologically active compounds remains a considerable challenge to be achieved. We therefore have implemented efforts to develop strategies to improve the isolation of minor and structurally unique secondary metabolites from both marine invertebrates and micro- organisms, aiming to investigate its chemistry, biological activities and biosynthesis.

In this seminar, some of the latest results obtained from these efforts will be presented and discussed, particularly the chemistry and biological activities of minor secondary metabolites isolated from the marine sponge Monanchora arbuscula and from cultures of two marine- derived fungal strains, Tinctoporellus sp. and Penicillium sp.