Sponges show the highest diversity of associated bacteria among marine invertebrates. Immunological evidence traces the origin of the sponge bacterial symbioses to the Precambrian era. Hence, sponges appear to be ideally suited for studying the evolutionary origins of prokaryote-metazoan associations. Sponges produce either calcareous or siliceous skeletons, which only coexist in a relict group...

The unnecessary death of juvenile and mature individuals of commercial species undermines the health of stocks and jeopardizes future yields, threatening the long term economic sustainability of European fisheries. Moreover the capture of non-commercial species (fish, sea birds, sponges...) severely impacts the marine environment by disrupting the balance of the ecosystem and attacking its biod...

The marine sponge genus Agelas comprises a rich reservoir of species and natural products with diverse chemical structures and biological properties with potential application in new drug development. This review for the first time summarized secondary metabolites from Agelas sponges discovered in the past 47 years together with their bioactive effects.

Poribacterial clone libraries constructed for Aplysina fulva sponge specimens were analysed with respect to diversity and phylogeny. Results imply the coexistence of several, prevalently "intra-specific" poribacterial genotypes in a single sponge host, and suggest quantitative analysis as a desirable approach in studies of the diversity and distribution of poribacterial cohorts in marine sponges.

"Candidatus Synechococcus spongiarum" represents the widespread cyanobacterial symbionts found in marine sponges with relatively high genomic variability and likely important ecological roles. We present here the draft genome sequence of "Candidatus Synechococcus spongiarum" m9, which was assembled from a metagenome of Theonella swinhoei sampled in the South China Sea.

3-Alkylpyridine alkaloids are very common secondary metabolites from marine sponges of the order Haplosclerida. Here, we report on the identification and synthesis of the first cyclic monomeric 3-alkylpyridinium alkaloid from natural sources. Due to the lack of a pure sample of the new compound, structure elucidation had to rely on HPLC and MS(n).

The rise in antibiotic-resistant bacteria has spurred efforts to identify novel compounds with antimicrobial activity. This brief report describes the genome sequence of threeBacillusspecies isolates from South African marine sponges, which produce compounds with antimicrobial activity. A search for secondary metabolite clusters revealed several secondary metabolite pathways in these genomes, w...

Pyrrole-imidazole alkaloids are widely distributed in marine sponges of the orders Halichondrida and Agelasida. Chemical investigation of the Caribbean sponge Stylissa caribica has led to the isolation of the first brominated pyrrole-imidazole alkaloid containing an oxidized pyrrole moiety. The isolation and structure elucidation of oxocyclostylidol (1) are discussed in detail.