Publishable Summary
A number of biologically active compounds with varying degrees of action, such as antitumour, anticancer,
cytotoxic, photoprotective, as well as antibiotic and antifouling properties, have so far been isolated from
marine sources. The chemical and biological diversity of the marine environment is immeasurable and
therefore is an extraordinary resource discovery of marine derived novel drugs. Hence, this project focused on
the isolation of biologically active secondary compounds from marine sources. The work package is shared by
groups of Turkey, Germany, Canada and China. Knowledge transfer will make this Project more extended and
scientific. The work package of this Project divided into groups. Every group has their responsibility related with
this Project. The aims of this project is given as following; a) Characterization of extracts and isolated
compounds from marine-derived endophytic fungi in several screening platforms b) Bioactivity screening c)
Establishing a blue mussel phenoloxidase inhibition assay as a powerful antifouling screening tool d)
Establishing a blue mussel phenoloxidase inhibition assay as a powerful antifouling screening tool. The work
package of Annex 1 was maintained by collecting seven marine samples from the Mediterrian and Egean Sea.
Antimicrobial l antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of the samples were tested. Two of them showed strong
cytoxic activity. Further investigations will continue for these two samples. Three of them showed
antimicrobial activity and any substances showed significant antioxidant activity. Eight fungal endophytes could
be isolated from six of
the collected marine
sources (Figure1)
Ircinia
Axinella
Ircinia oros
variabilis
polypoides
Penicillium
sanguifluu
m
Bionectria
ochraleuca
Clonostach
ys rosea
Eurotium
cristatum
Acremoniu
m sp.
Bionectria
ochraleuca
Ascomycete
sp.
unspecified
fungus
Figure 1.
During the cooperation program, we isolated 24 compounds from different marine-based endophytic fungi. To
clarify, 13 compounds are isolated from Ircinia oros, 3 compounds are isolated rom Ircinia variabilis and 8
compounds are isolated from Axinella polypoides. . Further identification is pending and will be performed by
HHU in the upcoming project period. Four of these twenty eight compounds are new. One of new compound
was new metabolite from Pestialotiopsis sp. We will go further investigations about these 3 new compounds.
Ascomycete sp.
B. Ochraleuca
Co-culture
From an extract of the fungus Pestialotiopsis sp. the structure of a compound bearing an unusual
cyclopropyl moiety (25, see figure 2) could be determined with various sepctroscopic methods. The compound
was assigned as a new natural product.
Figure 1. Structure of new metabolite (25) from Pestialotiopsis sp.
And Canadian group work on total 181 bacteria were isolated from 41 samples, 26 of which were invertebrate
samples. The isolated bacteria belonged to four different taxonomic classes, with the majority (55%) belonging
to the class Actinobacteria (Figure 1). When classified to the genus level, the bacterial isolates could be
assigned to 36 different genera(Figure 2). Among the Actinobacteria, bacteria belonging to the genera
Streptomyces, Mycobacterium and Micromonospora were the most frequently isolated. Examining the
similarity of the isolated bacteria to bacteria represented in the GenBank database revealed that 12.5% of
isolates exhibited 96-<99% sequence identity with strains represented in this database. This suggests that these
isolates represent novel species of bacteria thus may be of particular interest for the discovery of novel natural
products. The remaining 87.5% of isolates exhibited >99% sequence identity to strains in the GenBank
database, indicating that these isolates are related to previously described species, however, as natural
product production is often strain specific, these microbes are also a valuable resource for natural product
research.