Some endophytes in mutualistic associations with Festuca, Lolium and other grass species produce insecticidal loline alkaloids (1-aminopyrrolizidines; LA). These loline alkaloids have a saturated pyrrolizidine ring system (two-rings sharing a carbon and nitrogen atom), a 1-amine substituted with methyl, acetyl, or formyl groups, and an oxygen bridge between C-2 and C-7. The development of a reliable system of production of LA in cultures of the Lolium pratense (meadow fescue) endophyte, Neotyphodium uncinatum, facilitated work on the LA biosynthetic pathway. N. uncinatum produced norloline, loline, methylloline, N-acetylnorloline (NANL), N-formylloline (NFL), and N-acetylloline as detected in culture filtrates. The total production of the two most abundant alkaloids, NANL and NFL, approached 1000 g ml-1 of fungal filtrate. 1H and 13C chemical shifts were previously reported for this group of alkaloids. Extraction and synthesis of sufficient quantities of the alkaloids allowed determination of previously unknown 15N chemical shifts of some LA. Knowledge of 13C and 15N chemical shifts allowed identification of precursors by feeding stable-isotope-labeled compounds. Initially, due to structural similarity to other plant pyrrolizidines, this study examined putrescine and spermidine as possible precursors to LA. Feeding of 14C putrescine to the fungal cultures failed to demonstrate any enrichment in the LA, but enriched spermidine. In contrast, cultures fed with positionally labeled 2H, 13C and 15N amino acids namely, L-ornithine, L-proline, L-aspartate, L-homoserine, and L-methionine demonstrated specific isotopic enrichment in NFL. Determination of the enrichment from the labeled amino acids utilized 13C and 15 N NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) and gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS). This study allowed the biosynthetic origins of all carbons and nitrogens of NFL to be determined. NFL incorporated L-proline into the B-ring and L-homoserine into the A-ring and 1-amine. The results strongly indicated that polyamines are not precursors of LA and implicated a novel biochemical pathway for the synthesis of LA.

nÃo hà / Este trabalho descreve a composiÃÃo quÃmica das espÃcies marinha Palythoa caribaeorum e Protopalythoa variabilis, coletadas no municÃpio de Paracuru-CE. O fracionamento cromatogrÃfico do extrato hexÃnico de P. caribaeorum, resultou no isolamento de quatro esterÃides tetracÃclico de esqueleto ergostano: 24(R)-ergost-5-en-3-ol (P-1); 5,8-epidioxi-24(R)-ergost-6-en-3-ol (P-2); 24(R)-ergost-5-en-3,7-diol (P-4) e 24(R)-7-hidroperoxi-ergost-5-en-3-ol (P-7), um derivado do glicerol, 1-O-hexadecilglicerol (P-3) e quatro ceramidas: N-(2S,3R,4E,8E,1,3-dihidroxi-4,8-octadecadieno)hexadecanamida (P-5); N-(2S,3R,4E,1,3-dihidroxi-4-octadeceno)-hexadecanamida (P-6), N-[2S,3R,4E,8E,1-(2â-metilamino-etanosulfonila)-3-hidroxi-4,8-octadecaÂdieno]hexadecanamida (P-8) e N-[2S,3R,4E,1-(2â-metilaminoetano-sulfonila)-3-hidroxi-4-octadeceno]hexadecanamida (P-9). Do fracionamento cromatogrÃfico do extrato etanÃlico, foi possÃvel isolar o esterÃide 24(R)-ergost-7-en-3,56-triol (P-10) e o nucleosÃdeo 2-metil-timidina (P-11). Do estudo quÃmico do extrato hexÃnico de P. variabilis obteve-se os mesmos constituintes quÃmicos isolados de P. caribaeorum (P-1, P-2, P-3 e P-4) e as quatro ceramidas (P-5, P-6, P-8 e P-9). AlÃm destes compostos foi isolado um Ãster de cadeia alifÃtica, hexadecanoato de nonila (P-12) e o esterÃide Ãcido 24(R)-B-norergostan-3-5-diol-6-carboxÃlico (P-13). O potencial citotÃxico e antifÃngico das ceramidas foi avaliado, entretanto, estas nÃo apresentaram atividade. Os compostos foram isolados atravÃs de cromatografia de adsorÃÃo em gel de sÃlica e cromatografia lÃquida de alta eficiÃncia. As estruturas dos compostos obtidos foram elucidadas utilizando tÃcnicas espectroscÃpicas e espectromÃtricas, tais como: espectrometria de massa acoplada a cromatografia gasosa (CG/EM); espectrometria de massa de alta resoluÃÃo (EMAR); espectroscopia na regiÃo do infravermelho (IV) e RessonÃncia MagnÃtica Nuclear (RMN 1H, 13C e 15N) atravÃs de sequÃncias de pulsos uni e bidimensionais e comparaÃÃo com dados de RMN na literatura. / This work describes the chemical composition of the marine species Palythoa caribaeorum and Protopalythoa variabilis, both collected at Paracuru beach, state of CearÃ. The cromatographic fractionation of the hexane extract from P. caribaeorum resulted in the isolation of four tetracyclic sterols possessing the ergostan skeleton: 24(R)-ergost-5-en-3b-ol (P-1); 5 a,8a-epidioxy-24(R)-ergost-6-en-3b-ol (P-2); 24(R)- ergost-5-en-3b,7a-diol (P-4) and 24(R)-7a-hydroperoxy-ergost-5-en-3b-ol (P-7), a glycerol derivative, 1-O-hexadecylglycerol (P-3) and four ceramides: N- (2S,3R,4E,8E,1,3-dihydroxy-4,8-octadecadienyl)hexadecanamide (P-5); N- (2S,3R,4E,1,3-dihydroxy-4-octadecenyl)hexadecanamide (P-6); N-[2S,3R,4E,8E,1-(2â- methylamino-ethanosulfonyl)-3-hydroxy-4,8-octadecaenyl]hexadecanamide (P-8) and N-[2S,3R,4E,1-(2â-methylaminoethano-sulfonyl)-3-hydroxy-4-octadecenyl]hexadecanamide (P-9). The cromatographic fractionation of the ethanol extract permited the isolation of a steroid, 24(R)-ergost-7-en-3b,5a,6b-triol (P-10) and a nucleoside 2- methyltimidine (P-11). Column chromatography of the hexane extract of P. variabilis led to the isolation of nonyl hexadecanoate (P-12), the sterol 24(R)-B-norergostan-3b- 5b-diol-6b-carboxylic acid (P-13) and the same chemical constituents previously isolated from P. caribaeorum (P-1, P-2, P-3 e P-4) including the four ceramides (P-5, P-6, P-8 e P-9). The citotoxic and antifungal properties of all ceramides were evaluated, nevertheless none of them showed any activity. All compounds were isolated through adsorption column cromatography over silica gel followed by high performance liquid chromatography. The structures of the isolated compounds were elucidated using spectrometric techniques, such as: GC/MS, HRESIMS, IR and NMR (1H, 13C and 15N) through 1D and 2D pulse sequences and, whenever the case, comparison with literature data