BMBF Joint Project:

BOSMAN II

BOreal Sponges-Sources
of MArine Natural Products

diverse sponge species thriving on corals

The main objective of the joint project BOSMAN is to investigate industrial applicabilities of natural products and enzymes of boreal sponges (phylum porifera) and their associated microorganisms. BOSMAN is embedded in the central research programme "Marine Natural Product Research" launched by the Federal Ministry of Education, Research and Technology in 1999. The first period of BOSMAN was challenged by six long-term experienced, multidisciplinary research groups from different universities, whose scientific activities comprise marine fieldwork, geobiology, sponge and microbiological taxonomy, and natural product chemistry. Furthermore bioassays were developed, in order to analyse extracts, fractions, and isolated compounds for specific biological activity.

In summer 1999 a research cruise on board the R/V POSEIDON (POS 254) - using the manned submersible (JAGO) - was directed to a coral reef structure on the mid-Norwegian shelf (Sula Ridge). Beside a reef ecosystem characterization, the cruise lead to the collection of almost 150 sponge individuals and, subsequently, to a cultivation and isolation of more than 1300 aerobic sponge-associated eubacteria. This sample material forms the basis of the investigations in BOSMAN II and was expanded by further cruises into marine cold water areas like the Greenland Sea (R/V POLARSTERN, PS 62) and the south Norwegian Korsfjord (Espeland Marine Biological Station).

submersible "JAGO", front view

Extending the objectives of the first period, BOSMAN II targets are:

• Inventory of organic compounds present in sponge-associated microorganisms.
• Identification of sponge taxa containing pharmaceutically interesting natural products.
• Assignment of characteristic natural products to sponges or microorganisms. Assessment of the biochemical role of natural products within the sponges (e.g. protection against predators, "bacterial farming", control of population density, communication).
• Investigation of natural product diversity with respect to phylogenetical classification of the sponge-prokaryote population.
• Development of criteria of prediction (probability of the occurrence of discrete natural product classes in certain sponges, microorganisms, environments) for the occurrence of natural products.
• Development of new bioassays.
• Identification of pharmacological effects of extracts, fractions and isolated compounds.
• Isolation of pure enzymes from sponge-associated microorganisms for application in industrial processes.
• Expansion of the "Porifera data base" for the joint project.

overview of the coral reef

Financial support
BOSMAN is a joint project within the frame of the research programme "Marine Natural Product Research" of the Federal Ministry of Education, Research and Technology. BOSMAN II is co-ordinated by the Institute of Biogeochemistry and Marine Chemistry and comprises seven subprojects with groups of scientists from the fields of chemistry, pharmaceutics, bio- and geosciences in corporation with industrial partners.

Scientists at the IfBM
Michael Holzwarth
Dr. Thomas Pape
Dr. Martin Blumenberg
Prof. Dr. Walter Michaelis (co-ordination)

Subprojects in BOSMAN

TP 1: Natural products of porifera and associated microorganisms from boreal habitats
Prof. Dr. Walter Michaelis
Institut für Biogeochemie und Meereschemie
Universität Hamburg

TP 2: Geobiology and biodiversity of arctic porifera
Prof. Dr. Joachim Reitner
Geowissenschaftliches Zentrum Göttingen, Abteilung Geobiologie
Universität Göttingen

TP 3: Pharmaceutical potential of marine microbial natural products
Prof. Dr. Gabriele König
Institut für Pharmazeutische Biologie
Universität Bonn

TP 4: Microbiology of porifera from cold water reef systems
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Szewzyk
Institut für Technischen Umweltschutz, Fachgebiet Ökologie der Mikroorganismen
Technische Universität Berlin

TP 5: Natural product screening and synthetic activities in cold water porifera and symbionts
PD Dr. Hans von Döhren
Max-Volmer-Institut für Biophysikalische Chemie und Biochemie, Abteilung Biochemie und Molekulare Biologie
Technische Universität Berlin

TP 6: Identification and synthesis of biological active secondary metabolites from sponges and associated microorganisms
Prof. Dr. Wittko Francke
Institut für Organische Chemie
Universität Hamburg

Industrial Partner
TP 7: Identification of novel industrial utilisable enzymes from sponge-associated microorganisms
Novozymes Deutschland GmbH

BOSMAN-Publications

Freiwald A. and Mortensen P.B. (2000) The first record of the deep-water coral Stenocyathus vermiformis (Pourtalès, 1868) (Scleractinia, Guyniidae) from Norwegian waters. Sarsia 85, 275-276.

Thiel V., Blumenberg M., Hefter J., Pape T., Pomponi S., Reed J., Reitner J., Wörheide G., and Michaelis W. (2002) A chemical view of the most ancient metazoa - biomarker chemotaxonomy of hexactinellid sponges. Naturwissenschaften 89, 60 - 66.

Sölter S., Dieckmann R., Blumenberg M., and Francke W. (2002) Barettin, revisited? Tetrahedron Letters 43, 3385-3386.

Blumenberg M., Thiel V., Pape T., and Michaelis W. (2002) The steroids of hexactinellid sponges. Naturwissenschaften, 89, 415-149.

Bartsch I. (2003) Halacarids (Acari) from coral reefs off Norway, Northern Atlantic: Description of a new Agauopsis species. Entomologische Mitteilungen aus dem Zoologischen Museum Hamburg 14, 117-123.

Hoffmann F., Janussen D., Dröse W., Arp G., and Reitner J. (2003). Histological investigation of organisms with hard skeletons: a case study of siliceous sponges. Biotechnic and Histochemistry 78, 191-199.

Hoffmann F., Rapp H.T., Zöller T., and Reitner J. (2003). Growth and regeneration in cultivated fragments of the boreal deep water sponge Geodia barretti Bowerbank, 1858 (Geodiidae, Tetractinellida, Demospongiae). Journal of Biotechnology 100, 109-118.

Reitner J. und Hoffmann F. (2003) Porifera-Zonierungen in Kaltwasser-Korallenriffen (Sula Rücken, Norwegen). In: Gradstein S.R., Willmann R., Zizka G. (Eds): Biodiversitätsforschung: Die Entschlüsselung der Artenvielfalt in Raum und Zeit, Kleine Senckenberg-Reihe 45. E. Stuttgart, 75-87.

Graeber I., Kaesler I., Dieckmann R., von Döhren H., and Szewzyk U. (2003 (2004)) Sponge associated bacteria from boreal sponges. In: Sponge Science in the New Millenium (Eds. M. Pansini, R. Pronzato, G. Bavestrello, R. Manconi), Bollettino dei Musei e degli Istituti biologici dell'Università di Genova 68, 357-363.

Pape T., Blumenberg M., Thiel V., Michaelis W. (2003 (2004)) Biphytanes as biomarkers for sponge associated Archaea. In: Sponge Science in the New Millenium (Eds. M. Pansini, R. Pronzato, G. Bavestrello, R. Manconi), Bollettino dei Musei e degli Istituti biologici dell'Università di Genova 68, 509-515.

Schönberg C.H.L. Hoffmann F., and Gatti S. (2003 (2004)) Using microsensors to measure sponge physiology. In: Sponge Science in the New Millenium (Eds. M. Pansini, R. Pronzato, G. Bavestrello, R. Manconi), Bollettino dei Musei e degli Istituti biologici dell'Università di Genova 68, 593-604.

Hoffmann F., Rapp H.T., Pape T., Peters H., Reitner J. (2004) Sedimentary inclusions in the deep-water sponge Geodia barretti (Geodiidae, Demospongiae) from the Korsfjord, Western Norway. Sarsia 89, 245-252.

Gross, H., Reitner, J., König, G.M. (2004) Isolation and structure elucidation of azoricasterol, a new sterol of the deepwater sponge Macandrewia azorica. Naturwissenschaften 91, 441-446.

Hoffmann F., Larsen O., Thiel V., Rapp H.T., Pape T., Michaelis W., Reitner J. (2005) An anaerobic world in sponges. Geomicrobiology Journal (in press).