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Marine Drugs Mar 2022The biological screening of 44 marine sponge extracts for the research of bioactive molecules, with potential application in the treatment of age-related diseases...
The biological screening of 44 marine sponge extracts for the research of bioactive molecules, with potential application in the treatment of age-related diseases (cancer and Alzheimer's disease) and skin aging, resulted in the selection of extract for chemical study. As no reports of secondary metabolites of were found in the literature, we undertook this research to further extend current knowledge of chemistry. The investigation of this species led to the discovery of four new compounds: two butenolides sinularone J () and sinularone K (), one phospholipid 1--octadecyl-2-pentanoyl--glycero-3-phosphocholine () and one lysophospholipid 1--(3-methoxy-tetradecanoyl)--glycero-3-phosphocholine () alongside with known lysophospholipids ( and ), alkylglycerols (-), epidioxysterols ( and ) and diketopiperazines ( and ). The structure elucidation of the new metabolites (-) was determined by detailed spectroscopic analysis, including 1D and 2D NMR as well as mass spectrometry. Molecular networking was also explored to complement classical investigation and unravel the chemical classes within this species. GNPS analysis provided further information on potential metabolites with additional bioactive natural compounds predicted.
Topics: 4-Butyrolactone; Animals; Bays; Biological Products; Comoros; Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; Molecular Structure; Phospholipids; Piperazines; Porifera
PubMed: 35323485
DOI: 10.3390/md20030186 -
Journal of the Royal Society, Interface Jan 2019Leuconoid sponges are filter-feeders with a complex system of branching inhalant and exhalant canals leading to and from the close-packed choanocyte chambers. Each of...
Leuconoid sponges are filter-feeders with a complex system of branching inhalant and exhalant canals leading to and from the close-packed choanocyte chambers. Each of these choanocyte chambers holds many choanocytes that act as pumping units delivering the relatively high pressure rise needed to overcome the system pressure losses in canals and constrictions. Here, we test the hypothesis that, in order to deliver the high pressures observed, each choanocyte operates as a leaky, positive displacement-type pump owing to the interaction between its beating flagellar vane and the collar, open at the base for inflow but sealed above. The leaking backflow is caused by small gaps between the vaned flagellum and the collar. The choanocyte pumps act in parallel, each delivering the same high pressure, because low-pressure and high-pressure zones in the choanocyte chamber are separated by a seal (secondary reticulum). A simple analytical model is derived for the pump characteristic, and by imposing an estimated system characteristic we obtain the back-pressure characteristic that shows good agreement with available experimental data. Computational fluid dynamics is used to verify a simple model for the dependence of leak flow through gaps in a conceptual collar-vane-flagellum system and then applied to models of a choanocyte tailored to the parameters of the freshwater demosponge Spongilla lacustris to study its flows in detail. It is found that both the impermeable glycocalyx mesh covering the upper part of the collar and the secondary reticulum are indispensable features for the choanocyte pump to deliver the observed high pressures. Finally, the mechanical pump power expended by the beating flagellum is compared with the useful (reversible) pumping power received by the water flow to arrive at a typical mechanical pump efficiency of about 70%.
Topics: Animals; Flagella; Hydrodynamics; Models, Biological; Porifera
PubMed: 30958143
DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2018.0630 -
The ISME Journal Nov 2023Members of the candidate phylum Dadabacteria, recently reassigned to the phylum Candidatus Desulfobacterota, are cosmopolitan in the marine environment found both...
Members of the candidate phylum Dadabacteria, recently reassigned to the phylum Candidatus Desulfobacterota, are cosmopolitan in the marine environment found both free-living and associated with hosts that are mainly marine sponges. Yet, these microorganisms are poorly characterized, with no cultured representatives and an ambiguous phylogenetic position in the tree of life. Here, we performed genome-centric metagenomics to elucidate their phylogenomic placement and predict the metabolism of the sponge-associated members of this lineage. Rank-based phylogenomics revealed several new species and a novel family (Candidatus Spongomicrobiaceae) within a sponge-specific order, named here Candidatus Nemesobacterales. Metabolic reconstruction suggests that Ca. Nemesobacterales are aerobic heterotrophs, capable of synthesizing most amino acids, vitamins and cofactors and degrading complex carbohydrates. We also report functional divergence between sponge- and seawater-associated metagenome-assembled genomes. Niche-specific adaptations to the sponge holobiont were evident from significantly enriched genes involved in defense mechanisms against foreign DNA and environmental stressors, host-symbiont interactions and secondary metabolite production. Fluorescence in situ hybridization gave a first glimpse of the morphology and lifestyle of a member of Ca. Desulfobacterota. Candidatus Nemesobacterales spp. were found both inside sponge cells centred around sponge nuclei and in the mesohyl of the sponge Geodia barretti. This study sheds light on the enigmatic group Ca. Nemesobacterales and their functional characteristics that reflect a symbiotic lifestyle.
Topics: Animals; Porifera; Phylogeny; In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; Bacteria; Metagenome
PubMed: 37587369
DOI: 10.1038/s41396-023-01484-z -
The ISME Journal Jan 2022The sponge-associated microbial community contributes to the overall health and adaptive capacity of the sponge holobiont. This community is regulated by the environment...
The sponge-associated microbial community contributes to the overall health and adaptive capacity of the sponge holobiont. This community is regulated by the environment and the immune system of the host. However, little is known about the effect of environmental stress on the regulation of host immune functions and how this may, in turn, affect sponge-microbe interactions. In this study, we compared the bacterial diversity and immune repertoire of the demosponge, Neopetrosia compacta, and the calcareous sponge, Leucetta chagosensis, under varying levels of acidification and warming stress based on climate scenarios predicted for 2100. Neopetrosia compacta harbors a diverse microbial community and possesses a rich repertoire of scavenger receptors while L. chagosensis has a less diverse microbiome and an expanded range of pattern recognition receptors and immune response-related genes. Upon exposure to RCP 8.5 conditions, the microbiome composition and host transcriptome of N. compacta remained stable, which correlated with high survival (75%). In contrast, tissue necrosis and low survival (25%) of L. chagosensis was accompanied by microbial community shifts and downregulation of host immune-related pathways. Meta-analysis of microbiome diversity and immunological repertoire across poriferan classes further highlights the importance of host-microbe interactions in predicting the fate of sponges under future ocean conditions.
Topics: Animals; Bacteria; Immunity; Microbiota; Oceans and Seas; Porifera
PubMed: 34218251
DOI: 10.1038/s41396-021-01050-5 -
Marine Drugs Jan 2021Sponges of the Latrunculiidae family produce bioactive pyrroloiminoquinone alkaloids including makaluvamines, discorhabdins, and tsitsikammamines. The aim of this study...
Sponges of the Latrunculiidae family produce bioactive pyrroloiminoquinone alkaloids including makaluvamines, discorhabdins, and tsitsikammamines. The aim of this study was to use LC-ESI-MS/MS-driven molecular networking to characterize the pyrroloiminoquinone secondary metabolites produced by six latrunculid species. These are , , and as well as the recently discovered species, and . Organic extracts of 43 sponges were analyzed, revealing distinct species-specific chemical profiles. More than 200 known and unknown putative pyrroloiminoquinones and related compounds were detected, including unprecedented makaluvamine-discorhabdin adducts and hydroxylated discorhabdin I derivatives. The chemical profiles of the new species closely resembled those of the known (chemotype I), but with a higher abundance of tsitsikammamines vs. discorhabdins. sponges displayed two distinct chemical profiles, either producing mostly the same discorhabdins as (chemotype I) or non- or monobrominated, hydroxylated discorhabdins. and produced similar pyrroloiminoquinone chemistry to one another, characterized by sulfur-containing discorhabdins and related adducts and oligomers. This study highlights the variability of pyrroloiminoquinone production by latrunculid species, identifies novel isolation targets, and offers fundamental insights into the collision-induced dissociation of pyrroloiminoquinones.
Topics: Animals; Biodiversity; Gene Regulatory Networks; Porifera; Pyrroloiminoquinones
PubMed: 33525412
DOI: 10.3390/md19020068 -
Marine Drugs Dec 2011Lithistid sponges are known to produce a diverse array of compounds ranging from polyketides, cyclic and linear peptides, alkaloids, pigments, lipids, and sterols. A... (Review)
Review
Lithistid sponges are known to produce a diverse array of compounds ranging from polyketides, cyclic and linear peptides, alkaloids, pigments, lipids, and sterols. A majority of these structurally complex compounds have very potent and interesting biological activities. It has been a decade since a thorough review has been published that summarizes the literature on the natural products reported from this amazing sponge order. This review provides an update on the current taxonomic classification of the Lithistida, describes structures and biological activities of 131 new natural products, and discusses highlights from the total syntheses of 16 compounds from marine sponges of the Order Lithistida providing a compilation of the literature since the last review published in 2002.
Topics: Animals; Biological Products; HCT116 Cells; Humans; Porifera; Time Factors
PubMed: 22363244
DOI: 10.3390/md9122643 -
Marine Drugs 2011Porifera have long been a reservoir for the discovery of bioactive compounds and drug discovery. Most research in the area has focused on sponges from tropical and... (Review)
Review
Porifera have long been a reservoir for the discovery of bioactive compounds and drug discovery. Most research in the area has focused on sponges from tropical and temperate waters, but more recently the focus has shifted to the less accessible colder waters of the Antarctic and, to a lesser extent, the Arctic. The Antarctic region in particular has been a more popular location for natural products discovery and has provided promising candidates for drug development. This article reviews groups of bioactive compounds that have been isolated and reported from the southern reaches of the Arctic Circle, surveys the known sponge diversity present in the Arctic waters, and details a recent sponge collection by our group in the Aleutian Islands, Alaska. The collection has yielded previously undescribed sponge species along with primary activity against opportunistic infectious diseases, malaria, and HCV. The discovery of new sponge species and bioactive crude extracts gives optimism for the isolation of new bioactive compounds from a relatively unexplored source.
Topics: Animals; Arctic Regions; Biological Products; Drug Design; Drug Discovery; Humans; Porifera
PubMed: 22163194
DOI: 10.3390/md9112423 -
PloS One 2020The ability to regulate oxygen consumption evolved in ancestral animals and is intrinsically linked to iron metabolism. The iron pathways have been intensively studied...
The ability to regulate oxygen consumption evolved in ancestral animals and is intrinsically linked to iron metabolism. The iron pathways have been intensively studied in mammals, whereas data on distant invertebrates are limited. Sea sponges represent the oldest animal phylum and have unique structural plasticity and capacity to reaggregate after complete dissociation. We studied iron metabolic factors and their expression during reaggregation in the White Sea cold-water sponges Halichondria panicea and Halisarca dujardini. De novo transcriptomes were assembled using RNA-Seq data, and evolutionary trends were analyzed with bioinformatic tools. Differential expression during reaggregation was studied for H. dujardini. Enzymes of the heme biosynthesis pathway and transport globins, neuroglobin (NGB) and androglobin (ADGB), were identified in sponges. The globins mutate at higher evolutionary rates than the heme synthesis enzymes. Highly conserved iron-regulatory protein 1 (IRP1) presumably interacts with the iron-responsive elements (IREs) found in mRNAs of ferritin (FTH1) and a putative transferrin receptor NAALAD2. The reaggregation process is accompanied by increased expression of IRP1, the antiapoptotic factor BCL2, the inflammation factor NFκB (p65), FTH1 and NGB, as well as by an increase in mitochondrial density. Our data indicate a complex mechanism of iron regulation in sponge structural plasticity and help to better understand general mechanisms of morphogenetic processes in multicellular species.
Topics: Animals; Computational Biology; Gene Expression Profiling; Iron; Iron-Regulatory Proteins; Molecular Sequence Annotation; Phylogeny; Porifera; RNA-Seq
PubMed: 32084159
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0228722 -
PloS One 2018Sponges are a dominant element of the Antarctic benthic communities, posing both high species richness and large population densities. Despite their importance in...
Sponges are a dominant element of the Antarctic benthic communities, posing both high species richness and large population densities. Despite their importance in Antarctic ecosystems, very little is known about their reproductive patterns and strategies. In our study, we surveyed the tissue of six different species for reproductive elements, namely, Dendrilla antarctica Topsent, 1905 (order Dendroceratida), Phorbas areolatus (Thiele, 1905), Kirkpatrickia variolosa (Kirkpatrick, 1907), and Isodictya kerguelenensis (Ridley & Dendy, 1886) (order Poecilosclerida), and Hemigellius pilosus (Kirkpatrick, 1907) and Haliclona penicillata (Topsent, 1908) (Haplosclerida). Samples of these six species containing various reproductive elements were collected in Deception Island and were processed for both light and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Even though we were not able to monitor the entire reproductive cycle, due to time and meteorological conditions, we report important aspects of the reproduction of these species. This includes oocyte and embryo morphology and cell ultrastructure, follicular structures and nurse cell activity, as well as vitellogenesis. All species were brooding their embryos within their mesohyl. Both oocytes and embryos were registered in the majority of the studied species, and a single sperm cell being carried to an egg for fertilization was observed in H. penicillata. While the reproductive periods of all species coincided temporally, some of them seemed to rely on a single spawning event, this being suggested by the synchronic oogenesis and embryogenesis occurrence of D. antarctica, P. areolatus and I. kerguelenensis. In contrast, K. variolosa had an asynchronous embryo development, which suggests several larval release events. Our results suggest that differences in the reproductive strategies and morphological traits might succeed in the coexistence of these species at the same habitat avoiding the direct competition between them.
Topics: Animals; Antarctic Regions; Embryo, Nonmammalian; Oocytes; Porifera
PubMed: 29420669
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0192267 -
Methods in Molecular Biology (Clifton,... 2022Sponges (Porifera) are a large phylum that includes an enormous number of species. They are classified into four classes. Among these four classes, class Demospongiae is...
Sponges (Porifera) are a large phylum that includes an enormous number of species. They are classified into four classes. Among these four classes, class Demospongiae is the largest and contains more than 90% of sponge species. In the last decade, methodologies for molecular studies and sequencing resources in sponge biology have dramatically advanced and made it possible to clearly define particular types of cells based on the genes they are expressing. Here we describe in detail the method of high-resolution WISH (whole mount in situ hybridization) and dual color fluorescent detection of in situ hybridization (dual color FISH) that we have established to detect particular types of cells, especially their stem cells known as archeocytes, in juveniles of freshwater demosponge, E. fluviatilis.
Topics: Animals; Fresh Water; In Situ Hybridization; Porifera; Stem Cells
PubMed: 35359316
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-0716-2172-1_17