A Soft Spot for Chemistry–Current Taxonomic and Evolutionary Implications of Sponge Secondary Metabolite Distribution

Abstract

Marine sponges are the most prolific marine sources for discovery of novel bioactive compounds. Sponge secondary metabolites are sought-after for their potential in pharmaceutical applications, and in the past, they were also used as taxonomic markers alongside the difficult and homoplasy-prone sponge morphology for species delineation (chemotaxonomy). The understanding of phylogenetic distribution and distinctiveness of metabolites to sponge lineages is pivotal to reveal pathways and evolution of compound production in sponges. This benefits the discovery rate and yield of bioprospecting for novel marine natural products by identifying lineages with high potential of being new sources of valuable sponge compounds. In this review, we summarize the current biochemical data on sponges and compare the metabolite distribution against a sponge phylogeny. We assess compound specificity to lineages, potential convergences, and suitability as diagnostic phylogenetic markers. Our study finds compound distribution corroborating current (molecular) phylogenetic hypotheses, which include yet unaccepted polyphyly of several demosponge orders and families. Likewise, several compounds and compound groups display a high degree of lineage specificity, which suggests homologous biosynthetic pathways among their taxa, which identifies yet unstudied species of this lineage as promising bioprospecting targets.

Barrettides: A Peptide Family Specifically Produced by the Deep-Sea Sponge Geodia barretti

“…Generally, sponges are known as a prolific source of natural products. 1 − 3 , 37 For natural products typically considered primary metabolites, such as sterols, 38 sponges have been established as the producers. 2 , 39 − 41 However, many sponge-derived natural products typically considered as “secondary” or “specialized” metabolites have been found to be of microbial origin.…”

“…Marine sponges are recognized as a prolific source of new marine natural products (NPs). 1 − 3 However, these sponge NPs are frequently found to be produced by their associated microbes. 4 − 12 Geodia barretti Bowerbank, 13 1858 is a species of North Atlantic deep-sea demosponge well studied since the 1980s for its natural products.…”

“…Marine sponges are recognized as a prolific source of new marine natural products (NPs). − However, these sponge NPs are frequently found to be produced by their associated microbes. − Geodia barretti Bowerbank, 1858 is a species of North Atlantic deep-sea demosponge well studied since the 1980s for its natural products . To date, 12 small molecules have been reported to be associated with the sponge, namely, herbipolin, − barettin, 8,9-dihydrobarettin, the diketopiperazine cyclo­(Pro-Arg) and 8,9-dihydro-8-hydroxybarrettin, bromobenzisoxalone barettin, 6-bromoconicamin and 6-bromo-8-hydroxyconicamin, geobarrettins A, B, and C, and L-6-bromohypaphorine, with a range of bioactivities.…”

Application of Networking Approaches to Assess the Chemical Diversity, Biogeography, and Pharmaceutical Potential of Verongiida Natural Products

“…The biggest issue concerning some of these publications is related the missing or lacking taxonomic identification and geographical sampling information. This problem could be addressed with the inclusion of appropriate DNA identification of organisms for future NP studies, a suggestion made previously amongst the chemosystematics community [ 188 ]. Given this limitation, it is possible that some of the Verongiida sponge taxonomic classifications used in this current study may have been incorrectly classified in the literature, or that they have recently been re-classified as other species.…”

Ecological and Pharmacological Activities of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) from the Indonesian Marine Sponge Lamellodysidea herbacea

“…This species was first described as Spongelia herbacea (Keller, 1889), which was later revised to Dysidea herbacea (Keller, 1889), and is now accepted as Lamellodysidea herbacea (Keller, 1889) [16]. Having several taxonomic revisions also makes it harder to keep track of reported compounds or compound classes for particular species or even higher taxonomic ranks such as genus or family [17]. Based on previous publications, including the synonym genera, Lamellodysidea should be regarded as a sponge genus containing a wide variety of secondary metabolites divided into three distinct classes, namely terpenoids, polychlorinated amino-acids, and polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) [18].…”