Phylogeny-Guided Isolation of Ethyl Tumonoate A from the Marine Cyanobacterium cf. Oscillatoria margaritifera

The evolutionary relationships of cyanobacteria, as inferred by their SSU (16S) rRNA genes, were used as predictors of their potential to produce varied secondary metabolites. The evolutionary relatedness in geographically distant cyanobac:terial specimens was then used as a guide for the detection and isolation of new variations of predicted molecules. This phylogeny-guided isolation approach for new secondary metabolites was tested in its capacity to direct the search for specific classes of new natural products from Curacao marine cyanobacteria. As a result, we discovered ethyl tumonoate A (1), a new timonoic acid derivative with anti-inflammatory activity and inhibitory activity of calcium oscillations in neocortical neurons.