Subscribe to RSS
DOI: 10.1055/s-0034-1382351
The role of biogeography in marine natural products discovery
Biogeography, the description and understanding of the spatial patterns of biodiversity, is an ecological tool seldom associated with natural products research. But, information on biodiversity hotspots, species distribution and latitudinal/longitudinal gradients can be vital to understand and predict the distribution of marine natural products, lead to a better understanding of spatial and temporal patterns in chemotaxonomic studies of taxa of interest, and ultimately increase the success of natural product discovery. The paucity of biogeographical information for marine species is being addressed by the marine literature database MarinLit with the incorporation of geographical/depth data. MarinLit is now owned by the Royal Society of Chemistry and is web-based for the first time.
This is the only natural product database able to provide and search biogeographical data, or combine those data with other typical database features such as substructure searching. Examples will be provided to demonstrate the potential of biogeography as a tool to provide new insights into future bioprospecting efforts.