The marine environment represents one of the most underexplored environments in the world. Marine sponges have a higher taxonomic diversity according to definite environmental conditions. They have been considered interesting sources for bioactive compounds. Dictyoceratida sponges are divided into five families which are widely distributed and habituating different types of micro-organisms. However, some secondary metabolites are probably not produced by the sponges themselves, but rather by their associated micro-organisms. These secondary metabolites are characterized by different chemical structures and consequently different biological activities. This review outlines the reported secondary metabolites from micro-organisms associated with Dictyoceratida sponges and their investigated biological activities from 1991 to 2019. The increasing research studies in this field can play a major role in marine microbial natural products drug discovery in the future.
Keywords: Dictyoceratida; Dysideidae; Irciniidae; Spongiidae; Thorectidae; associated micro-organisms; marine natural products; sponges (Porifera).
© 2021 The Society for Applied Microbiology.