In an ongoing survey of the bioactive potential of microorganisms associated with marine invertebrates, the culture media of a sponge-associated bacterial strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa was found to contain metabolites which inhibit the growth of several Gram-positive microorganisms. A series of diketopiperazines (1-6) including a new natural product (6) and two known phenazine alkaloid antibiotics (7 and 8) were isolated from the culture broth of this bacterium.

Palmerolide A, a 20-membered macrocyclic polyketide bearing carbamate and vinyl amide functionality, was isolated from the tunicate Synoicum adareanum collected from the vicinity of Palmer Station on the Antarctic Peninsula. Palmerolide A displays potent and selective cytotoxicity toward melanoma (UACC-66 LC50 = 0.018 muM) and appears to operate via inhibition (IC50 = 2 nM) of V-ATPase.

The palatability of 35 non-encrusting, subtidal macroalgal species collected from the vicinity of Palmer Station, Antarctica (64°46' S, 64°03' W), was determined in laboratory bioassays utilizing sympatric sea stars and fish known to consume macroalgae in nature. Overall, 63% of the macroalgal species offered to sea stars and 83% of the macroalgal species offered to fish in thallus bioassays were significantly unpalatable. This included all of the ecologically dominant, overstory brown macroalgae in the region. When organic extracts of unpalatable macroalgal species were incorporated into artificial foods, 76% of the species unpalatable as thallus to sea stars were also unpalatable to them as extract, and 53% of the species unpalatable as thallus to fish were also unpalatable to them as extract. If either sea stars or fish rejected thallus of a macroalgal species, palatability of organic extracts of that species to herbivorous amphipods was determined: 63% of such algal species were unpalatable as extract to the amphipods. It was concluded that antarctic macroalgae are commonly unpalatable to sympatric consumers and that much of this unpalatability is the result of chemical defenses. As a whole, neither thallus toughness nor a variety of nutritional quality parameters appeared to be related to macroalgal palatability. We also tested the hypothesis that nitrogen-containing metabolites should be common in macroalgae from nitrogen-replete, carbon-limited environments such as the coastal waters of Antarctica. Macroalgal acid extracts targeting nitrogenous secondary metabolites were subjected to thin-layer chromatography analysis; no such compounds were detected.

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Chemical investigation of the Antarctic sponge Dendrilla membranosa collected from the vicinity of Palmer Station on Anvers Island, Antarctica, yielded three new diterpenes, membranolides B-D (2-4), as well as three previously reported sponge metabolites. Membranolides C and D (3, 4), bearing carboxylic acid functional groups, display Gram-negative antibiotic and antifungal activities.

In addition to five new depsipeptides related to kulolide-1 (1), further examination of the mollusk Philinopsis speciosa has yielded a linear peptide, pupukeamide ( 14), and an unprecedented macrolide, tolytoxin-23-acetate (7). Chemical makeup suggested that the compounds originate from blue-green algae and are transmitted via herbivorous mollusks to P. speciosa. This could be verified by laboratory experiment. The structures were determined largely by spectroscopic techniques and the stereochemistry by hydrolysis of the peptides followed by chiral chromatography.