The potential of the diverse chemistries present in natural products (NP) for biotechnology and medicine remains untapped because NP databases are not searchable with raw data and the NP community has no way to share data other than in published papers. Although mass spectrometry techniques are well-suited to high-throughput characterization of natural products, there is a pressing need for an infrastructure to enable sharing and curation of data. We present Global Natural Products Social molecular networking (GNPS, http://gnps.ucsd.edu), an open-access knowledge base for community wide organization and sharing of raw, processed or identified tandem mass (MS/MS) spectrometry data. In GNPS crowdsourced curation of freely available community-wide reference MS libraries will underpin improved annotations. Data-driven social-networking should facilitate identification of spectra and foster collaborations. We also introduce the concept of ‘living data’ through continuous reanalysis of deposited data.

The filamentous cyanobacterial genus Moorea gen. nov., described here under the provisions of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, is a cosmopolitan pan-tropical group abundant in the marine benthos. Members of the genus Moorea are photosynthetic (containing phycocyanin, phycoerythrin, allophycocyanin and chlorophyll a), but non-diazotrophic (lack heterocysts and nitrogenase reductase genes). The cells (discoid and 25–80 µm wide) are arranged in long filaments (<10 cm in length) and often form extensive mats or blooms in shallow water. The cells are surrounded by thick polysaccharide sheaths covered by a rich diversity of heterotrophic micro-organisms. A distinctive character of this genus is its extraordinarily rich production of bioactive secondary metabolites. This is matched by genomes rich in polyketide synthase and non-ribosomal peptide synthetase biosynthetic genes which are dedicated to secondary metabolism. The encoded natural products are sometimes responsible for harmful algae blooms and, due to morphological resemblance to the genus Lyngbya , this group has often been incorrectly cited in the literature. We here describe two species of the genus Moorea: Moorea producens sp. nov. (type species of the genus) with 3LT as the nomenclature type, and Moorea bouillonii comb. nov. with PNG5-198R as the nomenclature type.

In all probability, natural selection began as ancient marine microorganisms were required to compete for limited resources. These pressures resulted in the evolution of diverse genetically encoded small molecules with a variety of ecological and metabolic roles. Remarkably, many of these same biologically active molecules have potential utility in modern medicine and biomedical research. The most promising of these natural products often derive from organisms richly populated by associated microorganisms (e.g., marine sponges and ascidians), and often there is great uncertainty about which organism in these assemblages is making these intriguing metabolites. To use the molecular machinery responsible for the biosynthesis of potential drug-lead natural products, new tools must be applied to delineate their genetic and enzymatic origins. The aim of this perspective is to highlight both traditional and emerging techniques for the localization of metabolic pathways within complex marine environments. Examples are given from the literature as well as recent proof-of-concept experiments from the authors' laboratories.

Palmyrolide A (1) is a new neuroactive macrolide isolated from a marine cyanobacterial assemblage composed of Leptolyngbya cf. and Oscillatoria spp. collected from Palmyra Atoll. It features a rare N-methyl enamide and an intriguing t-butyl branch; the latter renders the adjacent lactone ester bond resistant to hydrolysis. Consistent with its significant suppression of calcium influx in cerebrocortical neurons (IC 50 =3.70 µM), palmyrolide A (1) showed relatively potent sodium channel blocking activity in neuro-2a cells (IC 50 =5.2 µM), without appreciable cytotoxicity.Suppression and/or activation of spontaneous Ca 2+ oscillations of murine cerebrocortical neurons1 has proven to be an extremely sensitive screening method for the discovery of new neurotoxins, including the recently reported cyanobacterial metabolites hoiamide A,2a alotamide A,2b and palmyramide A.2c In the case of hoiamide A, further pharmacological characterization found it to be a partial agonist at neurotoxin site 2 of voltage-gated sodium channels (VGSCs).2aPrimary cultures of cerebrocortical neurons allow the detection of two distinct actions when cells are loaded with the Ca 2+ sensitive fluorescent dye, fluo-3.1 First, those metabolites that trigger Ca 2+ influx can be easily revealed by monitoring for this ion using a Fluorometric Imaging Plate Reader (FLIPR). Secondly, because these cultures display spontaneous Ca 2+ oscillations, they provide a robust screening system for the discovery of small molecule ion wgerwick@ucsd.edu. Supporting Information Available: Experimental, full NMR data of 1, 2 and 4 (all stereoisomers), bioassay data, and taxonomic characterization. This material is available free of charge via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org. (Table 1 and SI) was an intense singlet at δ0.86 (nine protons), which could be attributed to three isochronous methyl groups comprising a t-butyl moiety.8 Also present were the methyl doublets at δ0.90 and δ1.21, as well as the N-methyl singlet at δ3.04. The 1 H NMR of 1 was completed by a deshielded methine proton at δ4.88 and a terminal 1,2-disubstituted vinylic system represented by protons at δ5.27 (dt) and δ6.47 (d). The presence of a t-butyl moiety was supported in the 13 C NMR spectrum of 1 by a very intense resonance at δ26.1, as well as a quaternary carbon at δ35.2. Additionally, the deshielded carbons at δ117.3 and δ130.6 were in agreement with a 1,2-disubstituted double bond, whereas the carbonyls at δ172.9 and δ175.3 indicated a total of two ester or/and amide functionalities. As detailed below, extensive analysis of these 1 H and 13 C NMR resonances using HSQC, HMBC, COSY and NOESY led us to deduce the planar structure of 1. NIH Public AccessThe intense singlet at δ0.86 (H9, H10, H11) showed HMBC correlations with the quaternary carbon C8 (δ35.2), oxymethine C7 (δ76.9), and methylene carbon C6 (δ35.6) ( Figure 1A). This last carbon was found by HSQC to bear the diastereotopic proton resonances H6a (δ1.38) and H6b (δ1.66), which according to the COSY spectrum, participa...