Investigating the diversity and marine natural products of bacteria associated with the gorgonian octocoral, Eunicea Fusca

Marine invertebrates, including gorgonian octocorals, are a prolific source of marine natural products (MNPs) and are also known to host diverse microbial communities. It is well-established that marine microbes are producers of bioactive secondary metabolites. Accordingly, it is hypothesized that bioactive metabolites extracted from some marine invertebrates may actually be produced by associated microbes rather than the invertebrate host. This research aims to characterize E. fusca's microbial community, and to discover novel, bioactive compounds biosynthesized by associated microorganisms. E. fusca is the focus of this study because its microbial community has not been characterized. Moreover, E. fusca is the sole source of the potent anti-inflammatory diterpenes fuscol, eunicol, and the fuscosides. Investigation of the unexplored E. fusca microbial community may provide insights into the biosynthetic source of these diterpenes, and may also lead to the discovery of novel, bioactive MNPs. The microbiome of Floridian and Bahamian E. fusca samples collected in June 2009 was characterized using culture-independent and -dependent methods. The culture-independent analysis revealed that E. fusca hosts a diverse and geographically-dependent bacterial community. In the culture-dependent study, 140 unique bacteria were cultured, 20 of which were putative, novel species based on 16S rDNA analysis. All cultured bacteria were fermented in diverse media and analyzed for MNP production. Characterization E. fusca's bacterial community and the results of MNP investigations will be presented.