An investigation of the dichioromethane extract of the sponge, Xestospongia testudinaria indicated that the extract was composed of approximately 40% sterols, 30% saturated fatty acids, 10% mono-unsaturated fatty acids and 20% poly-unsaturated acids. The sterol profile was found to vary between two collections of the sponge. In the first collection the major sterol was the C30 compound, xestosterol (4), which had not previously been reported to occur in this species. In the second collection there was a wider distribution of components with cholesterol (2a) being a major constituent and xestosterol being present in a much lower percentage than in the first collection. The poly-unsaturated acid fraction contained an extremely complex mixture. The novel brominated bisacetylenic C18 (47) and brominated C28 (65) acids were found to be the major components. Another six novel brominated acetylenic acids, which were very unstable, were also identified as well as an ester of 4 with 47. The method developed for the separation of the poly-unsaturated acids from the other classes of metabolites and for the isolation of the pure compounds is discussed and their structural elucidation, largely on the basis of NIMR spectroscopy is described. From the hexane extract of Carteriospongia foliascens, two novel bisalkylated norscalarane derivatives (114 and 116) and a bisalkylated scalarane derivative (130) have been isolated. By use of high field NMR and multipulse NMR techniques a complete assignment of the 111 and 13C NMR spectra of 130 has been achieved on 1.5mg of material. This represents the first report of a complete assignment of the 1J4 NMR spectrum of a scalarane derivative. The C-4 stereochemistry of 130 was determined by use of 1H NMR spectroscopic techniques, which gave results in agreement with the previously used 13C NMR method.

Porifera (sponge) has been considered the earliest branching group of the metazoan crown, it plays an important role of evolution from protist to multicellular organisms. The sponges do not have tissues and organs. There are 15,000 species of sponges in the world. They contain a rich variety of secondary metabolites which may have the potential of becoming anticancer or antivirus drugs. The morphological characteristics of sponges may be affected by the environmental conditions and cause ambiguity and confusion in sponge identification. The complete mitochondrial DNAs of four Demospongiae sponges, Terpios hoshinota, Xestospongia testudinaria, Petrosia corticata, and Suberea clavata in Green Island were determined by PCR and primer walking. The sequences can be used for evolution and phylogenetic analyses. The complete mitochondrial genomes of the four sponges contain 20498 bp, 18988 bp, 18562 bp and 19559 bp, respectively. The genomes encode 2 rRNA genes (rns, rnl), 14 protein-coding genes (atp6, atp8-9, cox1-3, cob, nad1-6, and nad4L) and 25 tRNAs. All the genes of T. hoshinota, X. testudinaria, P. corticata are transcribed on the same strand. Whereas, some of the genes (nad 4L ~ tRNA-SerUGA) of S. clavata are encoded on the complementary strand. The results showed the differences between the mitochondrial DNA sequences of X. testudinaria and the Atlantic sponge, X. muta, are very limited, therefore, they may be reclassified as the same species. Meanwhile, S. clavata and Aplysina fulva are close phylogenetically. The conflict between molecular and morphology taxonomy should be re-examined.