Sea sponges are rich in chemistry, but they are soft and immobile. Some of the biologically active compounds discovered by scientists have gone on to become medications. All of the small molecule that are found in these animals originate from the same bacterium. New research has found an exception. Scientists say sponges produce at least one promising group of compounds.
The results will be presented at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society.
The molecule in question is a type of terpene, compounds that are common within the natural world. Bradley Moore, the principal investigator of the study, says the discovery that sponges themselves make them represents a fundamental shift in the field.
If this animal is making this funky little terpene, what else are they doing? Moore says.
The sponges don't have to travel far. The Moore lab is located at the University of California, San Diego, in a building on the La Jolla waterfront. The researchers can house fragile specimen in tanks filled with their native sea water because of the proximity.
Natural sources of chemistry have long been sought out by researchers, many of which have been further developed into medicines. Scientists assumed that the sponges themselves made the drugs they were isolating. Sponges, like humans, share their bodies with legions of microbes, and these single-celled creatures are the talented chemists. Scientists are looking to discover potent natural compounds with the help ofbacteria.
A genetic analysis done by a student in Moore's lab shows that sponges can make biologically active molecule that could be useful for humans.
She studies the sponge-derived terpenes because they contain nitrogen. Studies have shown that some of them have malaria-fighting properties.
Although these compounds were well known, no one had looked at the genetic sequence that made them. Wilson collected a sponge from a dead ringer to find the biological instructions for the Chinese restaurant dish orange chicken.
She looked for instructions for the terpene synthase, an important step in making terpenes, from within the soup of the sponge. She was able to identify the genes with the help of another lab member. She says that when she looked at the surrounding DNA of the terpene synthase, there were a lot of features that suggested they were from the sponge animal.
Other work in the lab is focused on the discovery of brand-new compounds from within local San Diegan sponges.
He and two of the lab's undergrad students extract compounds from 13 species of local sponges that they culture in aquariums. By testing the sponge extracts for biological activity, the team has identified bromine- containing peptides from Cliona sponges that were found to inhibit the growth ofbacteria. The researchers are trying to determine the structure of the peptides, as well as how they kill the bacteria, to see if the compounds have the potential to be used as antibiotics. It is not clear if these are made by the sponges or the residentbacteria.
This is a million-dollar question that we want to answer, and Shende will be presenting research from the lab at the meeting.
More information: Biosynthetic potential of local San Diego sponges, ACS Spring 2022. acs.digitellinc.com/acs/live/22/page/677 Citation: Sponges, not just their microbes, make biologically potent compounds (2022, March 20) retrieved 20 March 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-03-sponges-microbes-biologically-potent-compounds.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
