Cultivation of marine sponges for metabolite production: applications for biotechnology?

摘要

the world's oceans harbour a large diversity of living organisms. As tropical rainforests have been searched for natural drugs, these marine organisms are being screened for useful products, and a number have been found in marine sponges. These are often produced only in trace amounts, and so a large quantity of sponges must be collected to obtain sufficient amounts of the target compounds.