The exploration of marine environment represents a promising strategy in the search for new active antiviral compounds. The isolation and characterization of the nucleosides spongothymidine and spongouridine from the sponge Cryptotethia crypta used as models for the synthesis of ara-A (vidarabine), that has been used therapeutically against herpetic encephalitis, was the most important contribu...

Despite the importance of trophic interactions between organisms, and the relationship between primary production and benthic diversity, there have been few studies that have quantified the carbon flow from pelagic to benthic environments as a result of the assemblage level activity of suspension-feeding organisms. In this study, we examine the feeding activity of seven common sponge species fr...

We report on the screening of ethanolic extracts from 33 deep-sea Antarctic marine sponges for different biological activities. We monitored hemolysis, inhibition of acetylcholinesterase, cytotoxicity towards normal and transformed cells and growth inhibition of laboratory, commensal and clinically and ecologically relevant bacteria. The most prominent activities were associated with the extrac...

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is common between prokaryotes and phagotrophic eukaryotes. In metazoans, the scale and significance of HGT remains largely unexplored but is usually linked to a close association with parasites and endosymbionts. Marine sponges (Porifera), which host many microorganisms in their tissues and lack an isolated germ line, are potential carriers of genes transferred fr...

Found at all depths and latitudes, sponges are among the most ubiquitous of marine organisms. With the advent of modern laboratory and field techniques (e.g., electron microscopy, histochemistry, the development of molecular biology and biochemistry, and the use of SCUBA for collection purposes) our knowledge of sponge biology has mushroomed (see reviews by Fell, 1974; Bergquist et al., 1979). ...

Marine sponges which are known to own multiple functional properties have created significant interest among the researchers due to their biological activities and impending application in different industries .The aim of this study was to obtained bioactive components of sponges. Gelliodes carnosa sponge was collected from Nay Band Bay (Persian Gulf waters) and antimicrobial activities of crud...

Hard substrates host globally a rich biodiversity, orders of magnitude higher in species number than that in surrounding soft substrates. Among them, marine caves support unique biodiversity and fragile communities but suffer lack of quantitative data on their structure and function, hindering their conservation status assessment. A first approach to the non-destructive ecological monitoring of...

Two unique chloro-pregnane steroids have been isolated from the eastern Pacific octocoral Carijoa multiflora and their structures and stereochemistries were determined on the basis of spectral studies and molecular mechanics calculations. © 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Pregnane steroids and their glycosides are rare in the marine environment and, ahhough the first pregnane derivative...

Sponges are key components of the benthic assemblages and play an important functional role in many ecosystems, especially in coral reefs. The Indonesian coral reefs, located within the so-called "coral triangle", are among the richest in the world. However, the knowledge of the diversity of sponges and several other marine taxa is far from being complete in the area. In spite of this great bio...

Sponges are the simplest extant animals but nevertheless possess self-nonself recognition that rivals the specificity of the vertebrate MHC. We have used dissociated cell assays and grafting techniques to study tissue acceptance and rejection in the marine sponge Microciona prolifera. Our data show that allogeneic, but not isogeneic, cell contacts trigger cell death and an increased expression ...