Here is as good a place as any to park this:
Bacterial Symbionts: Prospects for the Sustainable
Production of Invertebrate-Derived Pharmaceuticals
Piel, J.
Kekulé-Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry,
University of Bonn
Current Medicinal Chemistry, Volume 13, Number 1, January
2006, pp. 39-50
Invertebrate animals, such as sponges, tunicates and
bryozoans, are among the most important sources of
biomedically relevant natural products. However, as these
animals generally contain only low quantities of the
compounds, further pharmacological development is in most
cases difficult. There is increasing evidence that many
metabolites, in particular polyketides and nonribosomally
synthesized peptides, are not produced by the animals
themselves but by associated bacterial symbionts. This
symbiont hypothesis currently attracts considerable interest,
since it implicates that animal-independent production
systems based on bacterial fermentation processes could be
created. This review gives an overview about recent
developments in the research on natural product symbiosis.
Different techniques will be discussed that have been
employed to pinpoint the actual producer. Since bacterial
symbionts are highly fastidious and have been generally
resistant to cultivation attempts, emphasis will be laid on
culture-independent strategies, such as cell separation
approaches and the cloning of biosynthetic genes. These
strategies have provided insights into possible sources of
several natural products, e.g. the bryostatins, pederin, the
onnamides, swinholide A and theopalauamide. Finally,
potential techniques for the generation of renewable supplies
of symbiontderived drug candidates will be discussed.
Cultivation approaches and the heterologous expression of
cloned biosynthesis genes from uncultured symbionts could in
future provide access to several important marine drug
candidates, including bryostatin 1, halichondrin or ET-743.
I suppose the google search for this evening is this:
google.com |
