Abstract
Red algae of the genus Laurencia are known to biosynthesize and secrete an immense variety of secondary metabolites possessing a spectrum of biological activities against bacteria, invertebrates and mammalian cell lines. Following a rigorous cross-species screening process, herein we report the antifouling potential of 25 secondary metabolites derived from species of the genus Laurencia, as well as the thorough evaluation of the ecotoxicity of selected metabolites against non-target marine arthropods and vertebrate cell lines. A number of these secondary metabolites exhibited potent antifouling activity and performed well in all screening tests. Our results show that perforenol (9) possesses similar antifouling activity with that already described for bromosphaerol, which is used herein as a benchmark.
Highlights
Owing to their co-evolution with living organisms and the environment, natural products offer increased specificity and efficiency towards their targets as a means of increasing the fitness and survival of the organism which produces them [1,2,3]
Given that a number of secondary metabolites from Laurencia species have already been identified as possessing antifouling activity, we designed a rigorous progressive testing procedure in which a number of compounds isolated from Laurencia and Aplysia species were tested and progressively eliminated in a successive series of model organisms to assess their potential use as antifouling compounds, as well as their ecotoxicity profile
We evaluated 25 secondary metabolites isolated from species of the genus Laurencia, as well as sea hares of the genus Aplysia feeding on them (1–25, Figure 1) in settlement bioassays with the model barnacle species A. amphitrite
Summary
Owing to their co-evolution with living organisms and the environment, natural products offer increased specificity and efficiency towards their targets as a means of increasing the fitness and survival of the organism which produces them [1,2,3]. Marine organisms are no exception to this rule, producing an astonishing array of natural products with diverse biological activities [1,2,3]. A characteristic example in the marine environment is the Laurencia paradox [4], referring to species of red algae belonging to the genus Laurencia that biosynthesize a constantly increasing number of new secondary metabolites, which to date exceeds 1,000 chemical entities, with structural and functional diversity [5]. Red algae of the genus Laurencia have been a rich source of structurally diverse and unique secondary metabolites with both attractant and deterring activity against a variety of marine organisms [4,5], which in turn has triggered the interest of researchers towards the evaluation of the isolated metabolites as naturally-occurring chemical compounds with antifouling activity against marine fouling invertebrates. Structures within the cells of red algae, mostly localized close to or at the surface cell layer [6], act as storage vesicles for
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