Diketopiperazines from the Culture Broth of a Marine Actinomycete Promicromonospora sp.

Abstract

Diketopeperazines (DKPs) and their derivatives are widely distributed in nature as secondary metabolites. They have a wide variety of biological activities including antitumor, antiviral, antifungal and antibacterial activities.As marine environmental conditions are extremely different from terrestrial ones, it is surmised that marine actinomycetes have different characteristics from those of terrestrial counterparts and, therefore, might produce different types of bioactive compounds. In our on-going research to develop the biomedical potential of marine actinomycetes, we isolated several diketopiperazines from the fermentation broth of a marine actinomycete, Promicromonospora sp. strain. The structures of these diketopiperazines were determined using spectroscopic methods. The fermentation, isolation, and structure elucidation of diketopiperazines will be presented.