蓝细菌是一个多样化的固氮门,能够在各种环境中定殖的光致氧细菌。除了它们作为重氮生物的基本作用之外,它们产生过多的生物活性分子,通常作为次级代谢产物,表现出各种生物和生态功能有待进一步研究。在所有确定的物种中,蓝藻能够在海洋环境中与原生动物等生物建立共生关系,大型藻类,海草,和海绵,直到海鞘和其他无脊椎动物。这些共生已经被证明可以极大地改变蓝藻的生理,诱导产生通常未表达的生物活性分子。的确,参与共生关系的蓝细菌的代谢变化是由信息化学物质的交换和激活沉默的途径引发的。药物发现研究表明,这些分子具有有趣的生物技术观点。在这次审查中,我们探索海洋环境中的蓝藻共生,不仅将它们视为重氮生物,而且还考虑到信息化学品的交流,并强调关系的化学生态学以及对制药和营养应用的候选生物技术价值。
Cyanobacteria are a diversified phylum of nitrogen-fixing, photo-oxygenic bacteria able to colonize a wide array of environments. In addition to their fundamental role as diazotrophs, they produce a plethora of bioactive molecules, often as secondary metabolites, exhibiting various biological and ecological functions to be further investigated. Among all the identified species, cyanobacteria are capable to embrace symbiotic relationships in marine environments with organisms such as protozoans, macroalgae, seagrasses, and sponges, up to ascidians and other invertebrates. These symbioses have been demonstrated to dramatically change the cyanobacteria physiology, inducing the production of usually unexpressed bioactive molecules. Indeed, metabolic changes in cyanobacteria engaged in a symbiotic relationship are triggered by an exchange of infochemicals and activate silenced pathways. Drug discovery studies demonstrated that those molecules have interesting biotechnological perspectives. In this review, we explore the cyanobacterial symbioses in marine environments, considering them not only as diazotrophs but taking into consideration exchanges of infochemicals as well and emphasizing both the chemical ecology of relationship and the candidate biotechnological value for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical applications.