This review attempts to portray the discovery and development of anticancer agents/drugs from diverse natural sources. Natural molecules from these natural sources including plants, microbes and marine organisms have been the basis of treatment of human diseases since the ancient times. Compounds derived from nature have been important sources of new drugs and also serve as templates for synthe...

Cancer continues to be a major public health problem despite the efforts that have been made in the search for novel drugs and treatments. The current sources sought for the discovery of new molecules are plants, animals and minerals. During the past decade, the search for anticancer agents of marine origin to fight chemo-resistance has increased greatly. Each year, several novel anticancer mol...

The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) requires that Good Environmental Status (GEnS), is achieved for European seas by 2020. These may deviate from GEnS, its 11 Descriptors, targets and baselines, due to endogenic managed pressures (from activities within an area) and externally due to exogenic unmanaged pressures (e.g. climate change). Conceptual models detail the likely or perceiv...

This work evaluated the presence and the frequency of occurrence of marine litter in the gastrointestinal tract of 31 Caretta caretta found stranded or accidentally bycaught in the North Tyrrhenian Sea. Marine debris were present in 71% of specimens and were subdivided in different categories according to Fulmar Protocol (OSPAR 2008). The main type of marine debris found was user plastic, with ...

Marine organisms represent a valuable source of new compounds. The biodiversity of the marine environment and the associated chemical diversity constitute a practically unlimited resource of new active substances in the field of the development of bioactive products. In this paper, the molecular diversity of different marine peptides is described as well as information about their biological pr...

Quaternary climatic cycles have influenced marine organisms' spatial distribution and population dynamics. This study aimed to elucidate the evolutionary influences of contemporary and glacial physical barriers on the population structure, demography and colonization history of the mudskipper (Periophthalmus modestus) based on a mitochondrial gene segment (ND5) from 131 individual fish sampled ...

Microbial processes played a major role in mineral precipitation throughout the Earth’s history. Such processes have been widely discussed for the last few decades with regard to carbonate precipitation. Other than microbial precipitation of carbonates, in natural environments is also of great interest the potential role of microbes in the precipitation of marine barite. Regarding carbonates, o...

Distinguishing the relative contributions of various processes to variation in recruitment success is central to our understanding of patterns and rates of population replenishment in marine organisms. We monitored settlement and recruitment of a common Caribbean damselfish, the blue chromis Chromis cyanea, to ascertain the extent to which variation in recruitment reflected settlement dynamics....

Determining the conditions under which populations may persist requires accurate estimates of demographic parameters, including immigration, local reproductive success, and mortality rates. In marine populations, empirical estimates of these parameters are rare, due at least in part to the pelagic dispersal stage common to most marine organisms. Here, we evaluate population persistence and turn...

With the growing utilization and exploration of the ocean, anthropogenic noise increases significantly and gives rise to a new kind of pollution: noise pollution. In this review, the source and the characteristics of noise in the sea, the significance of sound to marine organisms, and the impacts of noise on marine organisms are summarized. In general, the studies about the impact of noise on m...