Soft coral Sarcophyton (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Octocorallia) species diversity and chemotypes.

ABSTRACT: Research on the soft coral genus Sarcophyton extends over a wide range of fields, including marine natural products and the isolation of a number of cembranoid diterpenes. However, it is still unknown how soft corals produce this diverse array of metabolites, and the relationship between soft coral diversity and cembranoid diterpene production is not clear. In order to understand this relationship, we examined Sarcophyton specimens from Okinawa, Japan, by utilizing three methods: morphological examination of sclerites, chemotype identification, and phylogenetic examination of both Sarcophyton (utilizing mitochondrial protein-coding genes MutS homolog: msh1) and their endosymbiotic Symbiodinium spp. (utilizing nuclear internal transcribed spacer of ribosomal DNA: ITS- rDNA). Chemotypes, mol

SUBMITTER: Aratake S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3260304 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature