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 de tailed 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 polychlorinat ed compounds isolated from the whole sponge tissue is limited to the c yanobacterial 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 prokaryoti c symbiont cells.