Abstract
It has been discovered during the past few years that demosponges of the order Verongida such as Aplysina cavernicola exhibit chitin-based skeletons. Verongida sponges are well known to produce bioactive brominated tyrosine derivatives. We could recently demonstrate that brominated compounds do not exclusively occur in the cellular matrix but also in the skeletons of the marine sponges Aplysina cavernicola and Ianthella basta. Our measurements imply that these yet unknown compounds are strongly, possibly covalently bound to the sponge skeletons. In the present work, we determined the skeletal amino acid composition of the demosponge A. cavernicola especially with respect to the presence of halogenated amino acids. The investigations of the skeletons before and after MeOH extraction confirmed that only a small amount of the brominated skeleton-bound compounds dissolves in MeOH. The main part of the brominated compounds is strongly attached to the skeletons but can be extracted for example by using Ba(OH)2. Various halogenated tyrosine derivatives were identified by GC-MS and LC-MS in these Ba(OH)2 extracts of the skeletons.
Highlights
Sponges (Porifera) belong to the oldest Metazoans and are the simplest animals on earth [1,2]. they do not possess morphological defense strategies, these sessile filter feeders successfully withstand the attacks of predators, as well as overgrowth by fouling organisms or bacterial infections.This evolutionary success is mainly due to an effective chemical defense based on deterrent, cytotoxic and/or antibiotically active compounds [3,4,5,6].Sponges possess a skeleton which consists of a composite of natural biomaterials containing organic constituents and/or inorganic compounds
We recently demonstrated that brominated compounds occur not exclusively in the cellular matrix and in the skeletons of the marine sponges A. cavernicola and I. basta
We developed a method to analyze the amino acid composition of the skeletons
Summary
Sponges (Porifera) belong to the oldest Metazoans and are the simplest animals on earth [1,2]. they do not possess morphological defense strategies, these sessile filter feeders successfully withstand the attacks of predators, as well as overgrowth by fouling organisms or bacterial infections.This evolutionary success is mainly due to an effective chemical defense based on deterrent, cytotoxic and/or antibiotically active compounds [3,4,5,6].Sponges possess a skeleton which consists of a composite of natural biomaterials containing organic constituents and/or inorganic compounds. Sponges (Porifera) belong to the oldest Metazoans and are the simplest animals on earth [1,2] They do not possess morphological defense strategies, these sessile filter feeders successfully withstand the attacks of predators, as well as overgrowth by fouling organisms or bacterial infections. This evolutionary success is mainly due to an effective chemical defense based on deterrent, cytotoxic and/or antibiotically active compounds [3,4,5,6]. Sponges possess a skeleton which consists of a composite of natural biomaterials containing organic constituents and/or inorganic compounds.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
