Chemical Screening Method for the Rapid Identification of Microbial Sources of Marine Invertebrate-Associated Metabolites

Marine invertebrates have proven to be a rich source of secondary metabolites. The growing recognition that marine microorganisms associated with invertebrate hosts are involved in the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites offers new alternatives for the discovery and development of marine natural products. However, the discovery of microorganisms producing secondary metabolites previously attributed to an invertebrate host poses a significant challenge. This study describes an efficient chemical screening method utilizing a 96-well plate-based bacterial cultivation strategy to identify and isolate microbial producers of marine invertebrate-associated metabolites

Low mannitol concentrations in Arabidopsis thaliana expressing Ectocarpus genes improve salt tolerance

Mannitol is abundant in a wide range of organisms, playing important roles in biotic and abiotic stress responses. Nonetheless, mannitol is not produced by a vast majority of plants, including many important crop plants. Mannitol-producing transgenic plants displayed improved tolerance to salt stresses though mannitol production was rather low, in the µM range, compared to mM range found in plants that innately produce mannitol. Little is known about the molecular mechanisms underlying salt tolerance triggered by low concentrations of mannitol. Reported here is the production of mannitol in Arabidopsis thaliana, by expressing two mannitol biosynthesis genes from the brown alga Ectocarpus sp. strain Ec32. To date, no brown algal genes have been successfully expressed in land plants. Expression of mannitol-1-phosphate dehydrogenase and mannitol-1-phosphatase genes was associated with the production of 42.3–52.7 nmol g−1 fresh weight of mannitol, which was sufficient to impart salinity and temperature stress tolerance. Transcriptomics revealed significant differences in the expression of numerous genes, in standard and salinity stress conditions, including genes involved in K+ homeostasis, ROS signaling, plant development, photosynthesis, ABA signaling and secondary metabolism. These results suggest that the improved tolerance to salinity stress observed in transgenic plants producing mannitol in µM range is achieved by the activation of a significant number of genes, many of which are involved in priming and modulating the expression of genes involved in a variety of functions including hormone signaling, osmotic and oxidative stress, and ion homeostasis

Molécules bioactives originales d'éponges marines martiniquaises et mahoraises (prospection, étude structurale et synthèse biomimétique)

Notre laboratoire se consacre à l isolement et à la caractérisation de nouvelles molécules bioactives à partir d éponges marines. A l aide d un bioguidage effectué au long des étapes de purification et d isolement, nous sélectionnons de manière efficace les composés à activité antitumorale. Ce manuscrit présente les travaux de recherche réalisés sur des éponges marines récoltées à Mayotte (2002) et en Martinique (2002), et plus particulièrement sur l éponge Plakortis Zyggompha, qui, d après la littérature, a été très peu étudiée, son étude a conduit à l isolement et la caractérisation de 15 nouveaux métabolites secondaires originaux appartenant à la famille chimique des polycétides. Plusieurs d entre eux ont fait l objet d une évaluation biologique avancée, d une étude biogénétique et les résultats d un travail de synthèse biométrique sont présentés.Ongoing researchs in our laboratory focus on the isolation and the characterization of new bioactive metabolites isolated frommarine sponges. A bioguided fractionation is performed to target efficiently antitumoral compounds. This manuscript presents our works on marine sponges collected off the Mayotte (2002) and the Martinique (2002) islands, and especially on the rare species Plakortis Zyggompha. This study led to the isolation and the characterization of 15 new secondary matabolites belonging to the Polyketides chemical family, several of them were subjected to an advanced biological evaluation, a biogenetic stud, and the results of the biomimetic synthesis works are presented.NICE-BU Sciences (060882101) / SudocSudocFranceF

Westerdykella reniformis sp. nov., producing the antibiotic metabolites melinacidin IV and chetracin B

Westerdykella reniformis Ebead & Overy sp. nov. is described based on morphology and phylogenetic analyses using ITS, nLSU rDNA, and β-tubulin gene sequences. Westerdykella reniformis is characterized by the production of cleistothecioid ascomata, containing small globose to subglobose asci with 32, aseptate, dark colored, pronouncedly reniform ascospores having a concave central groove. The isolate was obtained from a red alga (Polysiphonia sp.) collected from the tidal zone in Canada at low tide. Organic extracts enriched in extrolites, obtained from fermentation on a rice-based media, inhibited the growth of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE), S. warneri, and Proteus vulgaris. Presented here is the identification of the compounds responsible for the observed antimicrobial activity, the taxonomic description of W. reniformis, and a dichotomous key to the known species of Westerdykella based on macro- and micromorphological characters

Natural products with protein tyrosine phosphatase inhibitory activity

Protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) play an essential role in maintaining the proper tyrosine phosphorylation state of proteins. Abnormal tyrosine phosphorylation has been implicated in diseases as diverse as type 2 diabetes, cancer, immune disorders and neurological disorders, and thus inhibitors of PTPs have been investigated as potential treatments of these diseases. Natural products are widely regarded to be privileged structures in drug discovery efforts, and are therefore a good starting point for the development of PTP inhibitors. Here we describe reported natural product PTP inhibitors as well as methods to screen for natural product PTP inhibitors using bioassay-guided fractionation. These methods are illustrated using the example of a family of bromotyrosine-derived PTP inhibitors isolated from two marine sponges. We also identify potential pitfalls and false-positives, in particular compounds that are oxidizing agents that react irreversibly with the PTP

Mortiamides A–D, Cyclic Heptapeptides from a Novel <i>Mortierella</i> sp. Obtained from Frobisher Bay

Four new cyclic heptapeptides, mortiamides A–D (<b>1</b>–<b>4</b>), were obtained from a novel <i>Mortierella</i> sp. isolate obtained from marine sediment collected from the intertidal zone of Frobisher Bay, Nunavut, Canada. The structures of the compounds were elucidated by NMR spectroscopy and tandem mass spectrometry. The absolute configurations of the amino acids were determined using Marfey’s method. Localization of l and d amino acids within each compound was ascertained by retention time comparison of the partial hydrosylate products of each compound to synthesized dipeptide standards using LC-HRMS. Compounds <b>1</b>–<b>4</b> did not exhibit any significant antimicrobial or cytotoxic activity

A Rat Study to Evaluate the Protein Quality of Three Green Microalgal Species and the Impact of Mechanical Cell Wall Disruption

The present study was conducted to evaluate the protein quality of microalgae species Chlorella vulgaris (CV), Chlorella sorokiniana (CS), and Acutodesmus obliquus (AO) and assess the impact of mechanical cell wall disruption. Male Sprague&ndash;Dawley rats, around 156 g after adaptation, were placed in metabolic cages and fed experimental diets that were either protein-free or contained 10% protein solely from one of the undisrupted or disrupted CV, CS, and AO. After 3 days, feces were collected for a period of 5 days and analyzed together with diet samples for crude protein contents. Apparent protein digestibility, true protein digestibility, amino acid score, and protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score were calculated. In vitro protein digestibility was measured using the pepsin&ndash;pancreatin method and the in vitro protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score was calculated. The crude protein contents of CV, CS, and AO were 53.5, 50.2, and 40.3%, respectively. The amino acid score of the first limiting amino acid was 1.10, 1.27, and 0.86, true protein digestibility was 64.7, 59.3, and 37.9% and protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score was 0.63, 0.64, and 0.29, respectively, for CV, CS, and AO. Mechanical cell disruption significantly improved protein digestibility without a substantial impact on the amino acid profile and score, resulting in the increase of protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score to 0.77, 0.81, and 0.46, respectively, for disrupted CV, CS, and AO. There was a strong correlation between in vitro protein digestibility and apparent protein digestibility (r = 0.986), and also between in vitro protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score and in vivo protein digestibility-corrected amino acid score (r = 0.994). The results suggest that the CV and CS are acceptable sources of protein for humans and animals and quality can be markedly improved by mechanical cell wall disruption. Additionally, in vitro protein digestibility measured using the pepsin&ndash;pancreatin method may be used to screen protein product candidates, save animals, reduce cost, and accelerate product development

Assessing accumulation and biliary excretion of naphthenic acids in yellow perch exposed to oil sands-affected waters

Naphthenic acids are known to be the most prevalent group of organic compounds in oil sands tailings-associated waters. Yellow perch (Perca flavescens) were exposed for four months to oil sands-influenced waters in two experimental systems located on an oil sands lease 30km north of Fort McMurray Alberta: the Demonstration Pond, containing oil sands tailings capped with natural surface water, and the South Bison Pond, integrating lean oil sands. Yellow perch were also sampled from three lakes: Mildred Lake that receives water from the Athabasca River, Sucker Lake, at the edge of oil sands extraction activity, and Kimowin Lake, a distant reference site. Naphthenic acids were measured in perch muscle tissue using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Bile metabolites were measured by GC-MS techniques and by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection at phenanthrene wavelengths. A method was developed using liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) to evaluate naphthenic acids in bile. Tissue analysis did not show a pattern of naphthenic acids accumulation in muscle tissue consistent with known concentrations in exposed waters. Bile fluorescence and LC-HRMS methods were capable of statistically distinguishing samples originating from oil sands-influenced waters versus reference lakes. Although the GC-MS and HPLC fluorescence methods were correlated, there were no significant correlations of these methods and the LC-HRMS method. In yellow perch, naphthenic acids from oil sands sources do not concentrate in tissue at a measurable amount and are excreted through a biliary route. LC-HRMS was shown to be a highly sensitive, selective and promising technique as an indicator of exposure of biota to oil sands-derived naphthenic acids