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. 2012 Apr;10(4):677-693.
doi: 10.3390/md10040677. Epub 2012 Mar 23.

Temporal trends in the secondary metabolite production of the sponge Aplysina aerophoba

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Temporal trends in the secondary metabolite production of the sponge Aplysina aerophoba

Oriol Sacristán-Soriano et al. Mar Drugs. 2012 Apr.

Abstract

Temporal changes in the production of secondary metabolites are far from being fully understood. Our study quantified, over a two-year period, the concentrations of brominated alkaloids in the ectosome and the choanosome of Aplysina aerophoba, and examined the temporal patterns of these natural products. Based on standard curves, we quantified the concentrations of aerophobin-2, aplysinamisin-1, and isofistularin-3: three of the four major peaks obtained through chemical profiling with high-performance liquid chromatography. Our results showed a striking variation in compound abundance between the outer and inner layers of the sponge. The ectosome showed high concentrations of bromocompounds during the summer months, while the choanosome followed no pattern. Additionally, we found that, from the outer layer of the sponge, aerophobin-2 and isofistularin-3 were significantly correlated with water temperature. The present study is one of the first to document quantitative seasonal variations in individual compounds over multiple years. Further studies will clarify the role of environmental, biological, and physiological factors in determining the seasonal patterns in the concentration of brominated alkaloids.

Keywords: Aplysina; Porifera; chemical defenses; chemical ecology; natural products; satellite-derived SST; seasonality; temporal variation.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Metabolite abundances in the ectosome and choanosome of Aplysina aerophoba. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (MDS) was based on Bray-Curtis similarity matrices from standardized and square root-transformed abundances of chemical data. Significant differences were found between both layers.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Seasonal changes in BA abundances. Secondary metabolite concentrations (mg·g−1 dry mass sponge tissue) ± 1 standard error of the mean (SE) observed in different seasons in the ectosome of Aplysina aerophoba. Sp = spring (N = 30); Su = summer (N = 30); Au = autumn (N = 30); Wi = winter (N = 30). Aply1 = aplysinamisin-1; Iso3 = isofistularin-3. Means (i.e., seasons) with different letters are significantly different from each other (P ≤ 0.05; pairwise comparisons).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Monthly changes in metabolite concentrations. Secondary metabolite abundances (mg·g−1 dry mass sponge tissue ± 1 SE) in the ectosome (black) and in the choanosome (grey) of Aplysina aerophoba from May to April (N = 10 per month). We only show compounds in which there were significant monthly changes in metabolite concentrations. Aero2 = aerophobin-2; Aply1 = aplysinamisin-1; Iso3 = isofistularin-3. Means (i.e., months) with different letters are significantly different from each other (P ≤ 0.05; pairwise comparisons).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Temporal trends in metabolite abundances in the ectosome. Compound abundances (mg·g−1 dry mass sponge tissue ± 1 SE) observed in the ectosome of Aplysina aerophoba over a two-year survey (N = 5 per month). Aero2 = aerophobin-2; Aply1 = aplysinamisin-1; Iso3 = isofistularin-3. Significant differences P ≤ 0.05. The sea surface temperatures (°C) are also shown for the whole period (discontinuous line).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Temporal trends in metabolite abundances in the choanosome. Compound abundances (mg·g−1 dry mass sponge tissue ± 1 SE) observed in the choanosome of Aplysina aerophoba over a two-year survey (N = 5 per month). Aero2 = aerophobin-2; Aply1 = aplysinamisin-1; Iso3 = isofistularin-3. Significant differences P ≤ 0.05. The sea surface temperatures (°C) are also shown for the whole period (discontinuous line).
Figure 6
Figure 6
Correlations between compound abundances and satellite-derived sea surface temperatures. Changes in compound abundances (mg·g−1 dry mass sponge tissue) measured in the ectosome of Aplysina aerophoba were related to changes in sea surface temperature (°C). Aero2 = aerophobin-2; Aply1 = aplysinamisin-1; Iso3 = isofistularin-3. Significant differences P ≤ 0.05. * Significant correlation after Bonferroni correction.

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