Sulfated diesters of okadaic acid and DTX-1: Self-protective precursors of diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) toxins.

Many toxic secondary metabolites used for defense are also toxic to the producing organism. One important way to circumvent toxicity is to store the toxin as an inactive precursor. Several sulfated diesters of the diarrhetic shellfish poisoning (DSP) toxin okadaic acid have been reported from cultures of various dinoflagellate species belonging to the genus Prorocentrum. It has been proposed that these sulfated diesters are a means of toxin storage within the dinoflagellate cell, and that a putative enzyme mediated two-step hydrolysis of sulfated diesters such as DTX-4 and DTX-5 initially leads to the formation of diol esters and ultimately to the release of free okadaic acid. However, only one diol ester and no sulfated diesters of DTX-1, a closely related DSP toxin, have been isolated leading some to speculate that this toxin is not stored as a sulfated diester and is processed by some other means. DSP components in organic extracts of two large scale Prorocentrum lima laboratory cultures have been investigated. In addition to the usual suite of okadaic acid esters, as well as the free acids okadaic acid and DTX-1, a group of corresponding diol- and sulfated diesters of both okadaic acid and DTX-1 have now been isolated and structurally characterized, confirming that both okadaic acid and DTX-1 are initially formed in the dinoflagellate cell as the non-toxic sulfated diesters.

Isolation of sterols from the marine fungus Corollospora lacera.

Several marine fungi collected from the waters of Prince Edward Island, Canada, were screened for the presence of natural products exhibiting antibacterial activity. Both broths and mycelia of these fungi were studied using the bioassay-guided chromatographic separation. The 4 fractions from the extract of mycelia of Corollospora lacera exhibited weak antibacterial activity and were analyzed further. From these fractions, 2 sterols (5 alpha,8 alpha-epidioxyergosterol and 22E,24R-ergosta-7,22-diene-3beta,5 alpha,6 beta-triol) and a 3:1 mixture of linoleic and oleic acids were isolated. The presence of ergosterol was confirmed in dichloromethane extracts of mycelia of every fungus in this study and this sterol was isolated from the extract of mycelium of Corollospora lacera. Two other known compounds (5-hydroxymethylfuran-2-carbaldehyde and bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate), were isolated from the dichloromethane extract of mycelium of Monodictys pelagica. The phthalate was reported in the literature as a metabolite isolated from the fungi, but in our study it was proven to be an artifact of the culturing and (or) extraction procedures rather than a true fungal metabolite.