Description: The distribution of methane and hydrogen sulfide concentrations in sediments of various basins of the Baltic Sea was investigated during 4 cruises in 1995 and 1996. Significant differences in the concentrations of both compounds were recorded between the basins and also between different areas within the Gotland Deep. High-methane sediments with distinctly increasing concentrations from the surface to deeper layers were distinguished from low-methane sediments without a clear gradient. Methane concentrations exhibited a fair correlation with the sediment accumulation rate, determined by measuring the total thickness of the post-Ancylus Holocene sequence on echosounding profiles in the Gotland Deep. Only weak correlations were observed with the content of organic matter in the surface layers of the sediments. Hydrogen sulfide concentrations in the sediments showed a positive correlation with methane concentrations, but, in contrast to methane concentrations, were strongly influenced by the transition from oxic to anoxic conditions in the water column between 1995 and 1996. Sediments in the deepest part of the Gotland Basin (〉 237 m water depth), covering an area of approximately 35 km2, were characterized by especially high accumulation rates (〉 70 cm/ka) and high methane and hydrogen sulfide contents. Concentrations of these compounds decreased rapidly towards the slope of the basin.

Description: Seven new fungal polyketides possessing linear pentaene structures ending in cyclic moieties were isolated from the mycelium extract of a marine sponge-derived Penicillium rugulosum. Feeding of C-13-labeled acetate and L-methionine was used to verify the polyketide origin of prugosene A1. It could also be shown that prugosenes B1 and C1 were formed from prugosene A1 by hydrolysis and decarboxylation of its oxabicyclo[2.2.1]heptane unit.

Description: Three novel natural products, sorbifuranones A–C (4–6), were isolated from a Penicillium chrysogenum fungus isolated from the marine sponge Ircinia fasciculata. Sorbifuranones B (5) and C (6) and 2′,3′-dihydrosorbicillin, a putative precursor to sorbifuranone B, were also found in the culture of another Penicillium strain, which was isolated from the sponge Tethya aurantium. Their constitutions were elucidated mainly by 2D NMR. NOE correlations in combination with quantum chemical calculations and comparison of experimental and calculated electronic circular dichroism (CD) spectra permitted assignment of the absolute configuration of sorbifuranone C. The structures hint at a two-step cleavage-cyclization sequence of sorbifuranone A (4) leading to the spiro compound sorbifuranone C, while sorbifuranone B is likely to be the respective cleavage product of a putative 2′,3′-dihydrosorbifuranone A, which cannot cyclize further.

Description: Vestimentiferan tubeworms (siboglinid polychaetes) of the genus Lamellibrachia are common members of cold-seep faunal communities and have also been found at sedimented hydrothermal vent sites in the Pacific. As they lack a digestive system, they are nourished by chemoautotrophic bacterial endosymbionts growing in a specialized tissue called the trophosome. Here we present the results of investigations of tubeworms and endosymbionts from a shallow hydrothermal vent field in the Western Mediterranean Sea. The tubeworms, which are the first reported vent-associated tubeworms outside the Pacific, are identified as Lamellibrachia anaximandri using mitochondrial ribosomal and cytochrome oxidase I gene sequences. They harbor a single gammaproteobacterial endosymbiont. Carbon isotopic data, as well as the analysis of genes involved in carbon and sulfur metabolism indicate a sulfide-oxidizing chemoautotrophic endosymbiont. The detection of a hydrogenase gene fragment suggests the potential for hydrogen oxidation as alternative energy source. Surprisingly, the endosymbiont harbors genes for two different carbon fixation pathways, the Calvin-Benson-Bassham (CBB) cycle as well as the reductive tricarboxylic acid (rTCA) cycle, as has been reported for the endosymbiont of the giant vent tubeworm Riftia pachyptila. In addition to RubisCO genes we detected ATP citrate lyase (ACL, the key enzyme of the rTCA cycle) type II gene sequences using newly designed primer sets. Comparative investigations with additional tubeworm species (Lamellibrachia luymesi, Lamellibrachia sp. 1, Lamellibrachia sp. 2, Escarpia laminata, Seepiophila jonesi) from multiple cold seep sites in the Gulf of Mexico revealed the presence of acl genes in these species as well. Thus, our study suggests that the presence of two different carbon fixation pathways, the CBB cycle and the rTCA cycle, is not restricted to the Riftia endosymbiont, but rather might be common in vestimentiferan tubeworm endosymbionts.