First records of Hamacantha species from seamounts off eastern Australia (Porifera, Demospongiae, Merliida), with description of four new species.

Four new species of encrusting Hamacantha (Vomerula) are described from bathyal depths of seamounts off Queensland and Tasmania in southeast Australia (H. (V.) novacula sp. nov., H. (V.) melliflura sp. nov., H. (V.) ridleyi sp. nov., H. (V.) levii sp. nov.). A previously described species known only from New Caledonia (H. (V.) acerata Lévi, 1993) has also been redescribed. A tabular comparison of all known species of H. (Vomerula) is provided, bringing the number of known species in the subgenus to 26. This is also the first record of the genus Hamacantha from the Australian Exclusive Economic Zone.

New carnivorous sponges from the Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia collected by ROV from the RV FALKOR.

This research presents three new species of carnivorous sponges from the family Cladorhizidae from the Great Barrier Reef, in Queensland, Australia: Abyssocladia falkor sp. nov., Abyssocladia jeanvaceleti sp. nov. and Axoniderma wanda sp. nov. They were collected by ROV during the expedition FK200802-Seamounts, Canyons & Reefs of the Coral Sea Cruise on the RV Falkor from the Schmidt Ocean Institute. In addition, the ROV collection of two complete specimens enabled the redescription of two other Australian species of carnivorous sponge (Chondrocladia (Chondrocladia) zygainadentonis Ekins et al., 2020a and Asbestopluma (Asbestopluma) maxisigma Ekins et al., 2020a), previously known from the East coast of Australia based on incomplete specimens.

Deep Water Polymastiidae (Porifera, Polymastiida) from the South West Pacific.

This study reports on some deep water sponges in the family Polymastiidae collected during the 2017 Abyss Cruise off the East Coast of Australia and the 2003 NORFANZ Expedition to the Lord Howe and Norfolk Ridges in the Tasman Sea, Southwest Pacific Ocean. Species of Radiella, Spinularia, Ridleia, Tentorium and Polymastia were collected from abyssal and bathyal depths. From these collections, seven new species were discovered: Radiella nidula sp. nov., Radiella pumix sp. nov., Radiella sclera sp. nov., Spinularia flagellata sp. nov., Tentorium labium sp. nov., Ridleia echidna sp. nov. and Polymastia norfanzii sp. nov. In addition, two species previously known are redescribed based on the new collections: viz. Polymastia zitteli and Polymastia invaginata.

Revision of the genus Fascaplysinopsis, the type species Fascaplysinopsis reticulata (Hentschel, 1912) (Porifera, Dictyoceratida, Thorectidae) and descriptions of two new genera and seven new species.

The present study examines the taxonomy of sponge specimens with unique chemistry collectively known as Fascaplysinopsis reticulata (Hentschel, 1912). Examination of Hentschels original species upon which the genus Fascaplysinopsis Bergquist, 1980 was based in conjunction with a comparison with recent Indo-west Pacific collections, using morphological and molecular analyses (ITS and 28S rDNA), revealed extensive variation. Fascaplysinopsis reticulata was found to be a species complex comprising the genus Fascaplysinopsis, as well as two new genera: Skolosachlys gen. nov. and Rubrafasciculus gen. nov. The new species of Fascaplysinopsis described are F. palauensis sp. nov., F. klobos sp. nov. and F. ronquinni sp. nov. The new species of Skolosachlys gen. nov. described herein are: S. enlutea sp. nov. and S. nidus sp. nov. The new species described of Rubrafasciculus gen. nov. includes: R. cerasus sp. nov. and R. fijiensis sp. nov..

α-Synuclein Aggregation Inhibitory Prunolides and a Dibrominated ß-Carboline Sulfamate from the Ascidian Synoicum prunum.

Seven new polyaromatic bis-spiroketal-containing butenolides, the prunolides D-I (4-9) and cis-prunolide C (10), a new dibrominated ß-carboline sulfamate named pityriacitrin C (11), alongside the known prunolides A-C (1-3) were isolated from the Australian colonial ascidian Synoicum prunum. The prunolides D-G (4-7) represent the first asymmetrically brominated prunolides, while cis-prunolide C (10) is the first reported with a cis-configuration about the prunolide's bis-spiroketal core. The prunolides displayed binding activities with the Parkinson's disease-implicated amyloid protein α-synuclein in a mass spectrometry binding assay, while the prunolides (1-5 and 10) were found to significantly inhibit the aggregation (>89.0%) of α-synuclein in a ThT amyloid dye assay. The prunolides A-C (1-3) were also tested for inhibition of pSyn aggregate formation in a primary embryonic mouse midbrain dopamine neuron model with prunolide B (2) displaying statistically significant inhibitory activity at 0.5 µM. The antiplasmodial and antibacterial activities of the isolates were also examined with prunolide C (3) displaying only weak activity against the 3D7 parasite strain of Plasmodium falciparum. Our findings reported herein suggest that the prunolides could provide a novel scaffold for the exploration of future therapeutics aimed at inhibiting amyloid protein aggregation and the treatment of numerous neurodegenerative diseases.

Zootaxa 20 years: Phylum Porifera.

The peer-reviewed journal Zootaxa has accelerated the rate of sponge (Porifera) species discoveries in 289 peer-reviewed papers published between 2002 up until the end of 2020, describing 725 new species, six new subspecies, 27 new genera, four new subgenera, and 123 new species and genus names needed to resolve existing homonyms. Zootaxa has been the most prolific of all taxonomic journals in its contributions to describing new taxa of Porifera in modern times. This present article analyses these taxonomic contributions over the past 20 years of Zootaxa, including their trends and highlights pertaining to sponge publications.

Tedaniophorbasins A and B-Novel Fluorescent Pteridine Alkaloids Incorporating a Thiomorpholine from the Sponge Tedaniophorbas ceratosis.

Two new fluorescent pteridine alkaloids, tedaniophorbasins A (1) and B (2), together with the known alkaloid N-methyltryptamine, were isolated, through application of mass directed purification, from the sponge Tedaniophorbas ceratosis collected from northern New South Wales, Australia. The structures of tedaniophorbasins A and B were deduced from the analysis of 1D/2D NMR and MS data and through application of 13C NMR DFT calculations. Tedaniophorbasin A possesses a novel 2-imino-1,3-dimethyl-2,3,7,8-tetrahydro-1H-[1,4]thiazino[3,2-g]pteridin-4(6H)-one skeleton, while tedaniophorbasin B is its 2-oxo derivative. The compounds show significant Stokes shifts (~14,000 cm-1) between excitation and emission wavelengths in their fluorescence spectra. The new compounds were tested for bioactivity against chloroquine-sensitive and chloroquine-resistant strains of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, breast and pancreatic cancer cell lines, and the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma brucei brucei but were inactive against all targets at 40 µM.

New carnivorous sponges and allied species from the Great Australian Bight.

This research presents three new species of carnivorous sponges from the family Cladorhizidae from the Great Australian Bight, South Australia. This research also shows a clear separation within the species currently known as Cladorhiza into those with an arbuscular or tree-like morphology from the Atlantic, to those of differing morphologies and propose three new genera, i.e. Bathytentacular gen. nov., Abyssosdiskos gen. nov. and Nullarbora gen. nov. and the resurrection of an old genus Axoniderma. nov. The three new species described in this paper are Nullarbora heptaxia sp. nov., Abyssocladia oxyasters sp. nov. and Lycopodina hystrix sp. nov. A new species in the family Guitarridae, Guitarra davidconryi sp. nov., a family closely related to the carnivorous sponges is also described in this paper. These new species are the first recorded carnivorous species from South Australia and increase the number of species recorded from around Australia to 25.

Carnivorous sponges from the Australian Bathyal and Abyssal zones collected during the RV Investigator 2017 Expedition.

This research presents 17 new species of carnivorous sponges from the family Cladorhizidae sampled at bathyal and abyssal depths off the east coast of Australia during the RV Investigator 2017 Abyss Expedition. The species are comprised of six genera: Abyssocladia escheri sp. nov., A. annae sp. nov., A. gliscofila sp. nov., Asbestopluma (Asbestopluma) maxisigma sp. nov., Cladorhiza australis nov. sp., C. poritea sp. nov., C. investigator sp. nov., C. moniqueae sp. nov., C. pentaeiros sp. nov., Chondrocladia (Chondrocladia) freycinetensis sp. nov., Ch. (Ch.) callistemonex sp. nov., Ch. (Ch.) zygainadentonis sp. nov., Lycopodina nikitawimandi sp. nov., L. helios sp. nov., L. cassida sp. nov., L. brochidodroma sp. nov. and Euchelipluma claudochela sp. nov. Only three carnivorous species, A. desmophora, As. (As.) desmophora and C. (Meliiderma) tasmaniensis, have been recorded from Australia previously. This expedition also recovered two described species commonly recorded from the Southern Hemisphere Ch. (Ch.) clavata and L. calyx. This paper also redescribes two species from the South Pacific i.e. C. mirabilis and C. similis.

Quorum Sensing Inhibitory and Antifouling Activities of New Bromotyrosine Metabolites from the Polynesian Sponge Pseudoceratina n. sp.

Four new brominated tyrosine metabolites, aplyzanzines C-F (1-4), were isolated from the French Polynesian sponge Pseudoceratina n. sp., along with the two known 2-aminoimidazolic derivatives, purealidin A (5) and 6, previously isolated, respectively, from the sponges Psammaplysilla purpurea and Verongula sp. Their structures were assigned based on the interpretation of their NMR and HRMS data. The compounds exhibited quorum sensing inhibition (QSi) and antifouling activities against several strains of bacteria and microalgae. To our knowledge, the QSi activity of this type of bromotyrosine metabolite is described here for the first time.

Every sponge its own name: removing Porifera homonyms.

The occurrence of different sponge species bearing the same Linnean binomial name combination, i.e. homonyms, is to be avoided for obvious reasons. In a review of sponge taxon names of the World Porifera Database, we detected 121 homonymic cases (115 species-group names, 6 genus-group names), involving a total of 272 nominal taxa. It is the object of the present study to remove their occurrence by proposing new names for the junior homonyms following the rules of the International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature as laid down in the Code (ICZN, 1999) and the on-line edition http://iczn.org/iczn/index.jsp . Homonym cases are discussed and, where applicable, junior homonyms are either replaced by nomina nova or reassigned to their earliest available synonyms. The order in which the homonyms are treated is alphabetical on original species name, with genus names separately treated at the end. A summary table with all proposed name changes is also presented to allow quick access to the junior homonyms and their proposed new names. A total of 116 nomina nova are proposed, including five new genus names.

Identification of Fromiamycalin and Halaminol A from Australian Marine Sponge Extracts with Anthelmintic Activity against Haemonchus contortus.

There is an urgent need to discover and develop new anthelmintics for the treatment of parasitic nematodes of veterinary importance to circumvent challenges linked to drug resistant parasites. Being one of the most diverse natural ecosystems, the marine environment represents a rich resource of novel chemical entities. This study investigated 2000 extracts from marine invertebrates, collected from Australian waters, for anthelmintic activity. Using a well-established in vitro bioassay, these extracts were screened for nematocidal activity against Haemonchus contortus-a socioeconomically important parasitic nematode of livestock animals. Extracts (designated Mu-1, Ha-1 and Ha-2) from two marine sponges (Monanchora unguiculata and Haliclona sp.) each significantly affected larvae of H. contortus. Individual extracts displayed a dose-dependent inhibition of both the motility of exsheathed third-stage larvae (xL3s) and the development of xL3s to fourth-stage larvae (L4s). Active fractions in each of the three extracts were identified using bioassay-guided fractionation. From the active fractions from Monanchora unguiculata, a known pentacyclic guanidine alkaloid, fromiamycalin (1), was purified. This alkaloid was shown to be a moderately potent inhibitor of L4 development (half-maximum inhibitory concentration (IC50) = 26.6 ± 0.74 µM) and L4 motility (IC50 = 39.4 ± 4.83 µM), although it had a relatively low potency at inhibiting of xL3 motility (IC50 ≥ 100 µM). Investigation of the active fractions from the two Haliclona collections led to identification of a mixture of amino alcohol lipids, and, subsequently, a known natural product halaminol A (5). Anthelmintic profiling showed that 5 had limited potency at inhibiting larval development and motility. These data indicate that fromiamycalin, other related pentacyclic guanidine alkaloids and/or halaminols could have potential as anthelmintics following future medicinal chemistry efforts.

Chemical Diversity and Biological Activities of Marine Sponges of the Genus Suberea: A Systematic Review.

Marine natural products (MNPs) continue to be in the spotlight in the global drug discovery endeavor. Currently, more than 30,000 structurally diverse secondary metabolites from marine sources have been isolated, making MNPs a profound, renewable source to investigate novel drug compounds. Marine sponges of the genus Suberea (family: Aplysinellidae) are recognized as producers of bromotyrosine derivatives, which are considered distinct chemotaxonomic markers for the marine sponges belonging to the order Verongida. This class of compounds exhibits structural diversity, ranging from simple monomeric molecules to more complex molecular scaffolds, displaying a myriad of biological and pharmacological potentialities. In this review, a comprehensive literature survey covering the period of 1998⁻2018, focusing on the chemistry and biological/pharmacological activities of marine natural products from marine sponges of the genus Suberea, with special attention to the biogenesis of the different skeletons of halogenated compounds, is presented.

Identification of an aquaculture poriferan "Pest with Potential" and its phylogenetic implications.

Correct identification and classification of sponges is challenging due to ambiguous or misleading morphological features. A particular case is a blue keratose sponge occasionally referred to as the "Blue Photo Sponge" among aquarists, which appears frequently (and in several cases unintended) in private aquaria. This spicule-less species, occasionally specified as Collospongia auris Bergquist, Cambie & Kernan 1990, not only displays a high phenotypic plasticity in growth form and colour, it also proliferates in aquacultures under standard conditions unlike most other sponges. Therefore, this species is regarded as a pest for most aquarists. In turn, the ease of cultivation and propagation in aquacultures qualifies this species as a model organism for a wide array of scientific applications. For these purposes, correct identification and classification are indispensable. We reconstructed ribosomal gene trees and determined this species as Lendenfeldia chondrodes (De Laubenfels, 1954) (Phyllospongiinae), distant to Collospongia auris, and corroborated by skeletal features. Additionally, the resulting phylogeny corroborated major shortcomings of the current Phyllospongiinae classification-its consequences are discussed.

Chemistry and Biological Activities of the Marine Sponges of the Genera Mycale (Arenochalina), Biemna and Clathria.

Over the past seven decades, particularly since the discovery of the first marine-derived nucleosides, spongothymidine and spongouridine, from the Caribbean sponge Cryptotethya crypta in the early 1950s, marine natural products have emerged as unique, renewable and yet under-investigated pools for discovery of new drug leads with distinct structural features, and myriad interesting biological activities. Marine sponges are the most primitive and simplest multicellular animals, with approximately 8900 known described species, although more than 15,000 species are thought to exist worldwide today. These marine organisms potentially represent the richest pipeline for novel drug leads. Mycale (Arenochalina) and Clathria are recognized marine sponge genera belonging to the order Poecilosclerida, whereas Biemna was more recently reclassified, based on molecular genetics, as a new order Biemnida. Together, these sponge genera contribute to the production of physiologically active molecular entities with diverse structural features and a wide range of medicinal and therapeutic potentialities. In this review, we provide a comprehensive insight and up-to-date literature survey over the period of 1976⁻2018, focusing on the chemistry of the isolated compounds from members of these three genera, as well as their biological and pharmacological activities, whenever available.

A new species of the sponge Raspailia (Raspaxilla) (Porifera: Demospongiae: Axinellida: Raspailiidae) from deep seamounts of the Western Pacific.

A new species of Raspailia (Raspaxilla) frondosa sp. nov. is described from the deep seamounts of the Norfolk and New Caledonia Ridges. The morphology of the species resembles that of a frond or a fern, and its unique highly compressed axial skeleton of interlaced spongin fibres without spicules in combination with a radial extra axial skeleton of a perpendicular palisade of spicules, differentiate it from all other species of the subgenus. This species is compared morphologically to all 18 other valid species described in Raspailia (Raspaxilla).

Batzella, Crambe and Monanchora: Highly Prolific Marine Sponge Genera Yielding Compounds with Potential Applications for Cancer and Other Therapeutic Areas.

Pyrroloquinoline and guanidine-derived alkaloids present distinct groups of marine secondary metabolites with structural diversity that displayed potentialities in biological research. A considerable number of these molecular architectures had been recorded from marine sponges belonging to different marine genera, including Batzella, Crambe, Monanchora, Clathria, Ptilocaulis and New Caledonian starfishes Fromia monilis and Celerina heffernani. In this review, we aim to comprehensively cover the chemodiversity and the bioactivities landmarks centered around the chemical constituents exclusively isolated from these three marine genera including Batzella, Crambe and Monanchora over the period 1981-2017, paying a special attention to the polycyclic guanidinic compounds and their proposed biomimetic landmarks. It is concluded that these marine sponge genera represent a rich source of novel compounds with potential applications for cancer and other therapeutic areas.

An integrative systematic framework helps to reconstruct skeletal evolution of glass sponges (Porifera, Hexactinellida).

BACKGROUND: Glass sponges (Class Hexactinellida) are important components of deep-sea ecosystems and are of interest from geological and materials science perspectives. The reconstruction of their phylogeny with molecular data has only recently begun and shows a better agreement with morphology-based systematics than is typical for other sponge groups, likely because of a greater number of informative morphological characters. However, inconsistencies remain that have far-reaching implications for hypotheses about the evolution of their major skeletal construction types (body plans). Furthermore, less than half of all described extant genera have been sampled for molecular systematics, and several taxa important for understanding skeletal evolution are still missing. Increased taxon sampling for molecular phylogenetics of this group is therefore urgently needed. However, due to their remote habitat and often poorly preserved museum material, sequencing all 126 currently recognized extant genera will be difficult to achieve. Utilizing morphological data to incorporate unsequenced taxa into an integrative systematics framework therefore holds great promise, but it is unclear which methodological approach best suits this task. RESULTS: Here, we increase the taxon sampling of four previously established molecular markers (18S, 28S, and 16S ribosomal DNA, as well as cytochrome oxidase subunit I) by 12 genera, for the first time including representatives of the order Aulocalycoida and the type genus of Dactylocalycidae, taxa that are key to understanding hexactinellid body plan evolution. Phylogenetic analyses suggest that Aulocalycoida is diphyletic and provide further support for the paraphyly of order Hexactinosida; hence these orders are abolished from the Linnean classification. We further assembled morphological character matrices to integrate so far unsequenced genera into phylogenetic analyses in maximum parsimony (MP), maximum likelihood (ML), Bayesian, and morphology-based binning frameworks. We find that of these four approaches, total-evidence analysis using MP gave the most plausible results concerning congruence with existing phylogenetic and taxonomic hypotheses, whereas the other methods, especially ML and binning, performed more poorly. We use our total-evidence phylogeny of all extant glass sponge genera for ancestral state reconstruction of morphological characters in MP and ML frameworks, gaining new insights into the evolution of major hexactinellid body plans and other characters such as different spicule types. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates how a comprehensive, albeit in some parts provisional, phylogeny of a larger taxon can be achieved with an integrative approach utilizing molecular and morphological data, and how this can be used as a basis for understanding phenotypic evolution. The datasets and associated trees presented here are intended as a resource and starting point for future work on glass sponge evolution.

Merosesquiterpene Congeners from the Australian Sponge Hyrtios digitatus as Potential Drug Leads for Atherosclerosis Disease.

A study of the chemical constituents from the Australian Sponge Hyrtios digitatus has provided a perspective on the connection between the chemistry and biology of the puupehenones, a unique and unusual class of merosesquiterpenes. In this study, a new tetracyclic merosesquiterpene, 19-methoxy-9,15-ene-puupehenol (1) was isolated from the marine sponge Hyrtios digitatus along with the known 20-methoxy-9,15-ene-puupehenol (2). Their structures were elucidated on the basis of spectroscopic data (¹H and 13C NMR) in combination with experimental electronic circular dichroism (ECD) data. Compounds 1 and 2 are active at 1.78 µM and 3.05 µM, respectively, on Scavenger Receptor-Class B Type 1 HepG2 (SR-B1 HepG2) stable cell lines, targeting atherosclerosis disease.

Cytotoxic Guanidine Alkaloids from a French Polynesian Monanchora n. sp. Sponge.

Four bicyclic and three pentacyclic guanidine alkaloids (1-7) were isolated from a French Polynesian Monanchora n. sp. sponge, along with the known alkaloids monalidine A (8), enantiomers 9-11 of known natural product crambescins, and the known crambescidins 12-15. Structures were assigned by spectroscopic data interpretation. The relative and absolute configurations of the alkaloids were established by analysis of (1)H NMR and NOESY spectra and by circular dichroism analysis. The new norcrambescidic acid (7) corresponds to interesting biosynthetic variation within the pentacyclic core. All compounds exhibited antiproliferative and cytotoxic efficacy against KB, HCT116, HL60, MRC5, and B16F10 cancer cells, with IC50 values ranging from 4 nM to 10 µM.