Marine pharmacology

Marine organisms have provided a large proportion of the bioactive natural products reported over the last 20 years, but none of these compounds have reached the pharmaceutical marketplace. This review describes current progress in the development of a selection of new antiinflammatory and anticancer agents, discusses some difficulties encountered during the development process and suggests how these difficulties may be overcome in the near future through applications of recent advances in biotechnology.     

Marine drugs--macrolactins

The increasing demands for new lead compounds in pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries have driven scientists to search for new bioactive natural products. Marine microorganisms are rich sources of novel, bioactive secondary metabolites, and have attracted much attention of chemists, pharmacologists, and molecular biologists. This mini-review mainly focuses on macrolactins, a group of 24-membered lactone marine natural products, aiming at giving an overview on their sources, structures, biological activities, as well as their potential medical applications.     

Marine epibiosis

Summary Polysyncraton lacazei is a colonial tunicate (family didemnidae) living in the NW-mediterranean rocky sublitoral. A thorough scanning of numerous colonies revealed that in spite of an apparently heavy local fouling pressure only one fouling species — a kamptozoan — is encountered with some regularity on Polysyncraton. We try to define the epibiotic situation of sessile marine organisms as composed of four epibiotic parameters: longevity or exposure time (A), epibiont load (E), colonizer pool (CP) and fouling-period (FP). Subsequently, these factors are combined to propose an Antifouling Potential index: AFP=(1–E/CP)×A/(FP+A). This index is intended to permit evaluating the relative antifouling defense potency to be expected in a given organism in a given epibiotic situation and to compare different cases of epibiosis and fouling.     

History of American Marine Biology and Marine Biology Institutions Introduction: Origins of American Marine Biology

SYNOPSIS.In the 1840s and 1850s professional naturalists dredgedshallow sea-water on the eastern coast of the United Statesto obtain marine specimens for teaching and research. In 1871Spencer F. Baird, first U.S. Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries,organized amarine biological laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts,for basic biological research as well as for practical fisherybiology. In 1873 Louis Agassiz established his summer marinestation for teachers on Penikese Island, which stimulated others,especially some of his former students, to do likewise alongthe eastern coast in subsequent years, culminating in the renownedMarine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole (1888). On the Pacificcoast the pioneer marine laboratories were the Hopkins MarineLaboratory (1892) and the prestigious Scripps Institute of Oceanographyin California (1903), and the Puget Sound Biological Station,later known as the Friday Harbor Laboratories, in Washington(1903). Today, over 50 marine laboratories are in operationin the 21 contiguous coastal states for education and researchin marine biology     

Marine diterpene glycosides

Marine diterpene glycosides (MDGs) respresent a small but highly significant group of the much larger class of marine diterpenes. The three well-studied examples of MDGs are eleutherobins, pseudopterosins and fuscosides, all of which exhibit extremely promising biological activity. The eleutherobins are potent anti-mitotic agents, and the pseudopterosins and fuscosides are potent anti-inflammatory agents. This review discusses the structures and biological activities of these compounds, as well as their biosynthesis and synthesis.     

Polar Marine Communities

SYNOPSIS. This paper offers a sweeping but very superficialreview of the marine biology of polar seas. The marine systemsin the Arctic and Antarctic have in common polar positions andcold temperatures, otherwise they are strikingly different.The Arctic has broad shallow continental shelves with seasonallyfluctuating physical conditions and a massive fresh water impactin the northern coastal zones. However, it has a low seasonalityof pack ice and little vertical mixing. In contrast, the Antarctichas over twice the oceanic surface area, deep narrow shelves,and, except for ice cover, a relatively stable physical environmentwith very little terrestrial input. The Antarctic has greatpack ice seasonality and much vertical mixing. Primary productivityin the polar areas tends to be strongly pulsed with the zooplanktonlagging behind; however there are many exceptions to such generalizations.Most recent research has focused on specific patterns and processesresulting in biological hot spots such as predictable leadsin the ice, polynyas, oceanographic fronts, areas of intensemixing, and the marginal ice zone. This review attempts to weavethese recent oceanographic studies into the geological historyof each habitat in an effort to develop a holistic understandingof the biological processes