Abstract
Demosponges of the order Verongida such as Ianthella basta exhibit skeletons containing spongin, a collagenous protein, and chitin. Moreover, Verongida sponges are well known to produce bioactive brominated tyrosine derivatives. We recently demonstrated that brominated compounds do not only occur in the cellular matrix but also in the skeletons of the marine sponges Aplysina cavernicola and I. basta. Further investigations revealed the amino acid composition of the skeletons of A. cavernicola including the presence of several halogenated amino acids. In the present work, we investigated the skeletal amino acid composition of the demosponge I. basta, which belongs to the Ianthellidae family, and compared it with that of A. cavernicola from the Aplysinidae family. Seventeen proteinogenic and five non-proteinogenic amino acids were detected in I. basta. Abundantly occurring amino acids like glycine and hydroxyproline show the similarity of I. basta and A. cavernicola and confirm the collagenous nature of their sponging fibers. We also detected nine halogenated tyrosines as an integral part of I. basta skeletons. Since both sponges contain a broad variety of halogenated amino acids, this seems to be characteristic for Verongida sponges. The observed differences of the amino acid composition confirm that spongin exhibits a certain degree of variability even among the members of the order Verongida.
Highlights
The oceans represent the biggest habitat on earth, which is not yet fully explored.the marine habitat is one of increasing interest for the research and further exploration of this understudied environment
I. basta grows in in large fan or funnel shapes (Figure 1a) which is reflected in its planar, netlike skeleton structure large fan or funnel shapes (Figure 1a) which is reflected in its planar, netlike skeleton structure
The isolated skeleton of the marine demosponge I. basta was analyzed with respect to its amino acid composition
Summary
The oceans represent the biggest habitat on earth, which is not yet fully explored.the marine habitat is one of increasing interest for the research and further exploration of this understudied environment. Sponges (Porifera), representing one of the oldest metazoans, are often a prominent component of benthic communities [3]. They can be found in polar, temperate and tropical regions [4,5]. Sponges are sessile filterfeeders which cannot escape or actively fight predators [6,7]. They developed morphological and chemical defense mechanisms, providing them with protection against various predators [8,9,10,11,12,13]
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