Harnessing the potential: advances in cyanobacterial natural product research and biotechnology.

Covering: 2000 to 2023Cyanobacteria produce a variety of bioactive natural products that can pose a threat to humans and animals as environmental toxins, but also have potential for or inspire pharmaceutical use. As oxygenic phototrophs, cyanobacteria furthermore hold great promise for sustainable biotechnology. Yet, the necessary tools for exploiting their biotechnological potential have so far been established only for a few model strains of cyanobacteria, while large untapped biosynthetic resources are hidden in slow-growing cyanobacterial genera that are difficult to access by genetic techniques.

Antifungal mono- and dimeric nitrogenous bisabolene derivatives from a sponge in the order Bubarida from Futuna Islands.

An abundant sponge of the order Bubarida was selected for further chemical investigation following biological and chemical screening of sponges collected from Futuna Islands in the Indo-Pacific. Ten new nitrogenous bisabolene derivatives were isolated and identified: the monomeric theonellin formamide analogues named bubaridins A-F (1-6) with unusual oxidised linear chains, and the first isocyanide/formamide dimeric and cyclised bisabolenes 7-9. The structure elucidation of these nitrogenous bisabolenes involved HRESIMS, NMR, and ECD analyses, and the chiral compounds were found to be racemates.

Futunamine, a Pyrrole-Imidazole Alkaloid from the Sponge aff. Collected off the Futuna Islands.

The chemical investigation of the sponge aff. collected around Futuna Islands in the Pacific Ocean led to the isolation of three new dimeric pyrrole 2-aminoimidazole alkaloids (PIAs). Futunamine () features an unprecedented pyrrolo[1,2-]imidazole core, while two other new dimeric PIAs were identified as analogues of palau'amine.

Bromotryptamine and Bromotyramine Derivatives from the Tropical Southwestern Pacific Sponge .

So far, the Futuna Islands located in the Central Indo-Pacific Ocean have not been inventoried for their diversity in marine sponges and associated chemical diversity. As part of the Tara Pacific expedition, the first chemical investigation of the sponge collected around the Futuna Islands yielded 18 brominated alkaloids: seven new bromotryptamine derivatives - and one new bromotyramine derivative together with 10 known metabolites of both families -. Their structures were deduced from extensive analyses of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) data.