Chemical Defense in Marine Organisms

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This natural products chemistry project is a collaborative research effort at the interface of biology and chemistry directed toward identifying the chemicals that marine organisms produced to control and defend their environment. It is supported jointly by the Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry and Biological Oceanographic Programs. The chemical and biological foundations of chemical defense in marine plants and selected marine invertebrates will be investigated. The project will focus upon defining the natural products chemistry of "avoided" marine plants, gorgonian corals and didemnid ascidians found in the Caribbean Sea. The natural functions of specific marine secondary metabolites will be defined. Specific components of this project are as follows: (1) chemical studies of the bioactive components of "avoided" marine algae, including those of the previously un-investigated genera Vidalia, Wrightiella, Bryothamnion, and Trichogloea; (2) chemical studies of Caribbean gorgonian corals, such as those of the genera Pseudopterogorgia, Eunicea, Lophogorgia, and similar investigations of "avoided" didemnid ascidians; (3) the development of a feeding inhibition bioassay, to be utilized (in reef habitats) to measure feeding deterrence and avoidance phenomena; and (4) the continuation of an interdisciplinary program, with marine ecologists, exploring the natural functions of marine defensive chemicals, that is their effects on feeding, reproduction, larval settling phenomena and survival.