Chemical Defense in Marine Organisms

合成有机项目和生物海洋学项目共同支持加州大学圣地亚哥分校斯克里普斯海洋学研究所的William H. Fenical博士的研究。这个跨学科的研究项目将探索海洋化学防御的天然产物化学。该计划是基于对这种重要但鲜为人知的海洋栖息地适应的生物和化学成分的合作调查。生物活性天然产物的化学研究，包括使用分离科学和有机结构测定的新方法，结合实验生态学研究来说明次生代谢物在竞争性海洋生境中的功能。该项目的总体目标是从海洋生物中获得新的天然产物类别，了解这些化合物在生存中发挥的具体作用，并了解它们如何影响热带海洋环境中的群落组成和结构。

The Synthetic Organic Program and the Biological Oceanography Program are co-supporting the research of Dr. William H. Fenical of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California-San Diego. This interdisciplinary research program will explore the natural products chemistry of marine chemical defense. The program is based upon collaborative investigations of both the biological and chemical components of this significant, but poorly known, adaptation in marine habitats. Chemical studies of bioactive natural products, involving the use of new methods in separation science and organic structure determination, are combined with experimental ecological studies to illustrate the functions of secondary metabolites in competitive marine habitats. The overall goals of this program are to derive new classes of natural products from marine organisms, to comprehend the specific roles these compounds play in survival, and to understand how they influence community composition and structure in tropical marine environments.