Abstract
The bioactive bromotyrosine-derived alkaloids and unique morphologically-defined fibrous skeleton of chitin origin have been found recently in marine demosponges of the order Verongiida. The sophisticated three-dimensional (3D) structure of skeletal chitinous scaffolds supported their use in biomedicine, tissue engineering as well as in diverse modern technologies. The goal of this study was the screening of new species of the order Verongiida to find another renewable source of naturally prefabricated 3D chitinous scaffolds. Special attention was paid to demosponge species, which could be farmed on large scale using marine aquaculture methods. In this study, the demosponge Pseudoceratina arabica collected in the coastal waters of the Egyptian Red Sea was examined as a potential source of chitin for the first time. Various bioanalytical tools including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), fluorescence microscopy, FTIR analysis, Calcofluor white staining, electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), as well as a chitinase digestion assay were successfully used to confirm the discovery of α-chitin within the skeleton of P. arabica. The current finding should make an important contribution to the field of application of this verongiid sponge as a novel renewable source of biologically-active metabolites and chitin, which are important for development of the blue biotechnology especially in marine oriented biomedicine.
Highlights
Structural aminopolysaccharide chitin is one of the oldest biopolymers due to its presence in fungi which appeared on our planet around 2.4 billion years ago [1]
Discussion chitinous fibers were soaked in 0.1 M KOH-glycerine-water solution and few drops of the 0.1% Calcofluor white staining (CFW)
We suggest that the opportunity for ex situ cultivation of P. arabica can be an important advantage, which enables the use of this sponge for large scale applications in diverse advanced technologies
Summary
Structural aminopolysaccharide chitin is one of the oldest biopolymers due to its presence in fungi which appeared on our planet around 2.4 billion years ago [1]. One of the special characteristics of poriferan chitin is the 3D fibrous nature, which has been recognized as a naturally prefabricated tubular scaffold that follows the morphology especially of keratosan demosponges [13,14,15]. These unique 3D architectures of such scaffolds are typical for representatives of the Verongiida order (subclass Verongimorpha, class Demospongiae) and open perspectives for their applications in waste treatment [16], tissue engineering [14,17,18], electrochemistry [19] as well as extreme biomimetics [2,20,21,22,23]. Due to the fact that manufacturing of fungi, as well as crustaceans chitin into 3D sponge-like scaffolds, is difficult and expensive, the extensive research of species-specific morphology and structure of the chitin-scaffolds of sponge origin as “ready to use” materials still remain important for practical applications
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