Four novel bioactive tetrahydroanthra-γ-pyrone compounds, shellmycin A-D (1-4), were isolated from the marine Streptomyces sp. shell-016 derived from a shell sediment sample collected from Binzhou Shell Dike Island and Wetland National Nature Reserve, China. The structures of these four compounds were established by interpretation of 1D and 2D NMR and HR-MS data, in which the absolute configuration of 1 was confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction, and compound 3 and 4 are a pair of stereoisomers. Compound 1-4 exhibited cytotoxic activity against five cancer cell lines with the IC50 value from 0.69 μM to 26.3 μM. Based on their structure-activity relationship, the putative biosynthetic pathways of these four compounds were also discussed.
Keywords: NMR and single crystal X-ray diffraction; cytotoxic activity; marine Streptomyces sp.; shell-016; stereoisomers; tetrahydroanthra-γ-pyrone.