title: Variation in the alkaloids among indo-pacific Leucetta sponges.
abstract: Nine different Indo-Pacific collections of calcareous Leucetta sp. sponges were investigated for variation in their alkaloid constituents. These alkaloids consisted of 2-amino imidazoles such as dorimidazole A (1) and a polyunsaturated fatty amino alcohol (PUFAA), leucettamol A (3). The nine Leucetta species were divided into five different groups based on taxonomy. Significantly, six specimens contained leucettamol A (3), while the other three contained imidazoles, and these two classes of alkaloids did not occur in the same sponge sample. We recently found a Fijian Leucetta sponge that was a source of spirocyclopentimidazolidins, including spirocalcaridine A (4). We now show that another Fijian collection affords three amino imidazoles consisting of the known alkaloid naamine A (6) plus two new structures, N,N-dimethyl naamine D (5) and leucettamine C (7).
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Institute for Marine Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA. phil@chemistry.ucsc.edu
authors.forename: Phillip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Crews
authors.forename: Dale P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tenney
mesh_terms: D000470:Alkaloids / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D000818:Animals; D005233:Fatty Alcohols / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005367:Fiji; D007093:Imidazoles / Q000737:chemistry / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D015394:Molecular Structure; D019906:Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Biomolecular; D011161:Porifera / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D000470:Alkaloids; D005233:Fatty Alcohols; D007093:Imidazoles