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.
Highlights
Sponges (Phylum Porifera) are among the most successful survivalists in the animal kingdom, originating in the Neoproterozoic (>600 Mio yrs) and with over 9000 species from every aquatic habitat to date, e.g., [1,2,3,4], ranging from tropical reefs, to the deep-sea, arctic waters, and even freshwater bodies see, e.g., [5,6,7,8]
Sponges fulfil a key role in the ecosystem as nutrient and carbon recyclers, reef consolidators and habitats for micro- and macroorganisms, e.g., [11,12,13]
Two evolutionary features played an important role for the survival of sponges to the present day, one being an exceptional regenerative potential, allowing them to quickly recover from predatory attacks [20,21,22], the other one being elaborate biochemical defense mechanisms based on bioactive secondary metabolites [23,24]
Summary
Citation: Galitz, A.; Nakao, Y.; Schupp, P.J.; Wörheide, G.; Erpenbeck, D. A Soft Spot for Chemistry–Current Taxonomic and Evolutionary Implications of Sponge Secondary Metabolite Distribution. Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment (ICBM), Carl-von-Ossietzky University Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity, University of Oldenburg (HIFMB), 26129 Oldenburg, Germany SNSB-Bavarian State Collection of Palaeontology and Geology, 80333 Munich, Germany
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