Isolation and biosynthesis of terpenes in Pseudopterogorgia elisabethae and Leptogorgia minimata

The marine environment has proven to be an extremely rich source of novel natural products with activities in a variety of biological assays. The field of marine natural products chemistry has enjoyed an explosion of growth over the past 40 years and currently there are marine-derived metabolites in clinical trials for cancer, analgesia, allergy and cognitive diseases. Even with this tremendous development, it is clear that chemists and pharmacologists are only beginning to scratch the surface of the biomedical potential of marine organisms. One problem with this source of new pharmaceuticals is that the supply of such compounds can be problematic. The thesis describes projects directed at fundamental biosynthetic questions regarding terpenes from marine corals. In a general sense, these projects are directed as addressing the supply issue identified above. One project examined the origin of terpene building blocks in the coral Pseudopterogorgia elisabethae. A second project focused on the characterization of terpenes from Leptogorgia minimata. Here, a new cembranoid diterpene was isolated. Experiments were also conducted to identify a microbial source of terpene biosynthesis in this system. Data strongly supported a bacterial origin of these compounds.