Biodiversity of benthic invertebrates and bioprospecting in Icelandic waters
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Authors
Omarsdottir, SesseljaEinarsdottir, Eydis
Ögmundsdottir, Helga M.
Freysdottir, Jona
Olafsdottir, Elin Soffia
Molinski, Tadeusz F.
Svavarsson, Jörundur
Issue Date
2013
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Phytochemistry Reviews 2012, 12 (3):517Abstract
Iceland is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, with an exclusive economic zone of 200 nautical miles that is largely unexplored with respect to chemical constituents of the marine biota. Iceland is a geothermally active area and hosts both hot and cold adapted organisms on land and in the ocean around it. In particular, the confluence of cold and warm water masses and geothermal activity creates a unique marine environment that has not been evaluated for the potential of marine natural product diversity. Marine organisms need to protect themselves from other organisms trying to overgrow, and some need to secure their place on the bottom of the ocean. Unexplored and unique areas such as the hydrothermal vent site at the sea floor in Eyjafjordur are of particular interest. In 1992 a collaborative research programme on collecting and identifying benthic invertebrates around Iceland (BIOICE) was established, with participation of Icelandic and foreign institutes, universities and taxonomists on benthic invertebrates from all over the world. Since the programme started almost 2,000 species have been identified and of those 41 species are new to science. Our recent bioprospecting project is directed towards the first systematic investigation of the marine natural product diversity of benthic invertebrates occurring in Icelandic waters, and their potential for drug-lead discovery in several key therapeutic areas.Description
To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked Files. This article is open access.Additional Links
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11101-012-9243-7http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11101-012-9243-7
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Archived with thanks to Phytochemistry Reviewsae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1007/s11101-012-9243-7
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