Discovery of Bioactive Secondary Metabolites from Marine-Derived Microorganisms

Abstract

After 50 years of intensive research, chemistry of marine natural products has become a mature field. Since 1995, there are signals of decreased interest in the search of new metabolites from traditional sources such as macroalgae and corals, and the number of annual reports on marine sponges is stabilized. On the contrary, the study on the metabolites from marine microorganisms is a rapidly growing field, due to the fact that a number of metabolites obtained from macroalgae and invertebrates such as sponges may be produced by associated marine microorganisms. Studies are concerned with bacteria and fungi, isolated from seawater, sediments, algae, and mainly from marine invertebrates such as sponges, mollusks, tunicates, coelenterates and crustaceans. An additional possible explanation to study marine microorganisms should be that marine microorganisms constituted the ultimate inviolated frontier for the search of marine natural products. Thus, marine microorganisms have attracted considerable attention due to the structural diversities and unique biological activities of their secondary metabolites. In our ongoing study on the biomedical potential of marine microorganisms, we have isolated lots of novel bioactive metabolites from marine-derived microorganisms, such as actinomycetes, fungi, and bacteria. This presentation will highlight the importance of marine microorganisms in the drug discovery from marine natural products. The isolation, structure determination, and bioactivities of novel compounds from marine microorganisms will be presented.