CYANOBACTERIAL SYMBIONT BIOSYNTHESIS OF CHLORINATED METABOLITES FROM DYSIDEA-HERBACEA (PORIFERA)

The tropical marine sponge Dysidea herbacea contains large numbers of a symbiotic filamentous cyanobacterium identified on the basis of a detailed ultrastructural study as Oscillatoria spongeliae. We report the flow-cytometric separation of the symbiont from the sponge cells, and demonstrate by chemical analyses that a unique group of polychlorinated compounds isolated from the whole sponge tissue is limited to the cyanobacterial filaments, whereas the accompanying sesquiterpenoids are found only in the sponge cells. This is the first demonstration that secondary metabolites ascribed to a sponge are localized in prokaryotic symbiont cells.