Abstract
Sponges and their associated microbiota are well known to produce a large diversity
of natural products, also called specialized metabolites. In addition to their potential
use in the pharmaceutical industry, these rather species-specific compounds may help
in the classification of some particular sponge groups. We review herein compounds
isolated from haplosclerid sponges (Class Demospongia, Order Haplosclerida) in order
to help in the revision of this large group of marine invertebrates. We focus only
on 3-alkylpyridine derivatives and polyacetylenic compounds, as these two groups of
natural products are characteristic of haplosclerid species and are highly diverse.
A close collaboration between chemists and biologists is required in order to fully
apply chemotaxonomical approaches, and whenever possible biological data should include
morphological and molecular data and some insight into their microbial abundance.
Key words
sponges - Haplosclerida - alkaloids - polyacetylenic - chemotaxonomy