Our work with marine natural products (MNP) has focused on bryostatin 1, which is extracted from the bryozoa Bugula neritina and ET743, which is extracted from the sea squirt Ecteinascidia turbinate. In our approach, we make a large number of analytical measurements of the host organism, other organisms that live in the same ecosystems and sediment samples. These measurements have included ICP-AES and ICP-MS to quantitiate up to 70 elements down to the parts per billion level, MALDI-MS to screen the various organisms for the MNP or precursors, UV/Vis absorbances to quantitiate certain molecular species, and FT-ICR to provide exact mass accuracies so elemental composition can be determined. From these measurements, we garner three sets of important information: (1) Details of the chemical conditions of the ecosystem are measured for the first time. (2) Is there another organism that contains the same MNP or is there a ubiquitous precursor available in bulk in the same ecosystem? (3) Can we use the chemical information to make a broth to grow the microbe or bacteria that produces the MNP? This presentation will focus on the third data set. We have used detailed analytical measurements of Bugula neritina and its ecosystem to design, build and deploy a series of bacteria traps. The first set were deployed in the Gulf of Mexico in the summer of 2004. The second set are being tested in a lab/aquaculture setting. In both sets different mineral ratio's as well as sugars, lipids, etc found in the are mixed with Bugula and we attempt to grow the bacterial species, en mass, that are responsible for producing the MNP. The Bugula is used as a food source for the bacteria and is not living throughout the experiments. Our results to date will be presented.
Back to Frontiers in Chemistry and Medicine V (General Session)
Back to The 56th Southeast Regional Meeting 2004 (November 10-13, 2004)