Chemical Diversity of Filamentous Benthic Cyanobacteria

Genomic and chemical analysis has revealed that numerous species of filamentous cyanobacteria harbor complex secondary metabolisms tailored to their particular ecological niche. The metabolomic analysis of strains isolated and cultivated from cyanobacterial benthic mats has the potential to expand the library of marine algal-derived natural products. Strains were isolated from phytobenthos collected from coral reefs in Abrolhos, Brazil and Ishigaki, Japan. Phylogenetic analysis of isolates shows high similarity to previously-described members of benthic mats and also suggests the geographic expansion of the Adonisia lineage. Chemical analysis by LC-HRMS and data processing via MZmine and FBMN-GNPS of environmental samples and isolated cyanobacterial strains confirmed the presence of a wide chemical diversity. In addition, similarity analysis applying DBsimilarity indicated the broad coverage of various biosynthetic and chemical classes of compounds previously reported for cyanobacteria.