Natural product discovery via metatranscriptomic analysis of three Caribbean octocoral species.

Octocorals are an important source of bioactive natural products such as the pseudopterosin family of diterpene glycosides which exhibit potent anti-inflammatory activity. Despite the promising activity of these molecules their clinical development has been hampered by a lack of sustainable supply. Identification of the genes that direct natural product biosynthesis in octocorals would set the stage for further development of octocoral-derived natural products. Identification of these genes is complicated by the complex symbiotic assemblage hosted by octocorals, which is composed of both eukaryotic and prokaryotic symbionts. As a first step in elucidating natural product biosynthesis in octocorals we acquired metatranscriptomic datasets from two Caribbean octocorals. This data will be analyzed to identify transcripts related to natural product biosynthesis.