Sea sponges own unique chemistry goes beyond that of their bacterial guests

Sea sponges, simple animals that fossil evidence shows have been around for about 1.8 billion years, are teeming with unique chemistry. Up until now researchers assumed most of the really interesting chemistry was being carried out by their symbiotic bacteria, but now they’ve discovered that the sponges can produce biologically active compounds that could be drug candidates.

The new work was carried out by Bradley Moore’s marine chemistry and geochemistry lab at the University of California, San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the US and presented at the American Chemical Society’s spring conference held virtually and in-person in San Diego.