Sections
Log in
Top News
U.S. News World News Featured Voices
Odd News
Entertainment
Movies Music TV
Sports
Soccer NFL NBA MLB
Photos
News Entertainment Sports Features
More...
Defense Featured Science Health Video Archive Almanac
About Feedback Privacy Policy
About Feedback Privacy Policy
Search
Trending
Julie Ertz
LeBron James
Meteor shower
Cop charged
Presidents Cup
Ford recall
William Barr
NYC stabbing
Winter storm
Taylor Swift
Supreme Court
Science News
Nov. 21, 2019 / 10:07 AM

Scientists develop rapid cell lines for marine sponges

By
Brooks Hays
Marine sponges like the bread crumb sponge, seen here growing next to a sea anemone, produce dozens of novel chemical compounds. Photo by the National Park Service
Marine sponges like the bread crumb sponge, seen here growing next to a sea anemone, produce dozens of novel chemical compounds. Photo by the National Park Service

Nov. 21 (UPI) -- Scientists have for the first time developed rapid cell lines for marine sponges, a largely untapped source of novel chemicals, many of which boast medicinal qualities.

Cell lines are cells from multicellular organisms that are programmed to divide indefinitely. Cell lines from vertebrates, insects, and plants are vital to research in a variety of scientific fields, but researchers have, until now, failed to produced invertebrate cell lines.

Scientists have previously identified dozens of medically relevant compounds produced by marine sponges, but harvesting drug candidates from wild sponges isn't ecologically sustainable.

Luckily, researchers at Florida Atlantic University reached a breakthrough in biotechnology, successfully boosting the rate and number of cell divisions. Scientists bolstered the marine vertebrate cell cultures by growing cells in a unique amino acid-optimized nutrient medium.

RELATED Sponges sabotage coral reefs from the inside

In lab tests, cells from nine marine sponge species grew and divided at accelerated rates in the novel medium. The fastest-growing cells doubled in less than an hour, and subcultures from three of the species produced an average of nearly six population doublings, with lifespans of 21 and 35 days. Cells cultured in artificial seawater either remained the same or decreased.

Researchers described their invertebrate cell culture breakthrough Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports.

In addition to being used to search for and produce drug candidates and other medically relevant compounds, marine sponge cell lines can be used by evolutionary biologists to study early animal evolution.

RELATED Warming waters threaten large invertebrates in the Arctic

"Cell lines of common reef sponges also could be used to quantify the effects of climate change such as ocean warming and acidification on uptake of dissolved organic material, a major component of the 'sponge loop hypothesis' of carbon cycling, and to test the hypothesis that coral reefs could become sponge reefs as climate changes," Shirley Pomponi, senior study author and a research professor at FAU's Harbor Branch, said in a news release.

Because marine sponges can't move as adults, they've been forced to evolve complex chemical systems for communication and defenses from predators. But scientists have only investigated the many unique chemical compounds by a small percentage of the more than 9,000 marine sponge species.

Researchers hope their latest breakthrough will help scientists survey the secondary metabolites produced by previously unstudied sponge species.

RELATED Yeast can produce THC, CBD, novel cannabinoids

Latest Headlines

Geminid meteor shower underway, set to reach climax Friday night
Science News // 1 day ago
Geminid meteor shower underway, set to reach climax Friday night
Dec. 13 (UPI) -- As the year nears its close, many people are already looking ahead to 2020, but stargazers remain focused on 2019 as one of the year's top meteor showers is about to put on a dazzling display in the night sky.

Canadian tundra was once covered in thick forest
Science News // 1 day ago
Canadian tundra was once covered in thick forest
Dec. 13 (UPI) -- New research suggests Canada's northernmost islands were once covered in thick forest.

Map reveals land beneath Antarctic ice sheet in unprecedented detail
Science News // 2 days ago
Map reveals land beneath Antarctic ice sheet in unprecedented detail
Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Scientists have successfully mapped the topography of the land beneath Antarctica's ice sheet at high resolution by combining radar observations with ice volume and flow velocity data.

Mountain goats in Glacier National Park running out of A/C
Science News // 2 days ago
Mountain goats in Glacier National Park running out of A/C
Dec. 12 (UPI) -- New research suggests patches of snow -- increasingly rare sources of A/C -- are the only places where mountain goats in Montana's Glacier National Park can successfully slow their respiration during heat spells.

Genetic analysis accurately predicts lifespan of vertebrate species
Science News // 2 days ago
Genetic analysis accurately predicts lifespan of vertebrate species
Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Researchers in Australia have developed a new genetic analysis method capable of predicting the lifespan of vertebrate species.

Dark matter may explain mysterious gamma ray source at center of Milky Way
Science News // 2 days ago
Dark matter may explain mysterious gamma ray source at center of Milky Way
Dec. 12 (UPI) -- New analysis by astrophysicists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology suggests dark matter could explain a mysterious source of gamma rays in the center of the Milky Way.

World's oldest figurative cave painting depicts ancient hunting scene
Science News // 3 days ago
World's oldest figurative cave painting depicts ancient hunting scene
Dec. 11 (UPI) -- The discovery of an ancient cave painting on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi has pushed the origins of figurative cave painting back further than ever before.

Africa's tropics account for a third of rise in methane emissions
Science News // 3 days ago
Africa's tropics account for a third of rise in methane emissions
Dec. 11 (UPI) -- Methane emissions are on the rise, and new satellite data suggests Africa's tropics are responsible for at least a third of the recent increase.

Underground fiber-optic cables help scientists record thunderquakes
Science News // 3 days ago
Underground fiber-optic cables help scientists record thunderquakes
Dec. 11 (UPI) -- Loud thunderclaps can cause the ground to shake. The quakes are too subtle for humans to feel, but new research showed fiber optic cables can detect the thunderquakes.

Household dust hosts toxic chemicals from LCD screens
Science News // 3 days ago
Household dust hosts toxic chemicals from LCD screens
Dec. 11 (UPI) -- New research suggests liquid crystal monomers contain a variety of toxic chemicals, which tests showed can leach into everyday environs.

Trending Stories

Geminid meteor shower underway, set to reach climax Friday night
Geminid meteor shower underway, set to reach climax Friday night
Megadroughts forced Peruvian farmers into cloud forests 1,200 years ago
Megadroughts forced Peruvian farmers into cloud forests 1,200 years ago
Map reveals land beneath Antarctic ice sheet in unprecedented detail
Map reveals land beneath Antarctic ice sheet in unprecedented detail
Canadian tundra was once covered in thick forest
Canadian tundra was once covered in thick forest
Mountain goats in Glacier National Park running out of A/C
Mountain goats in Glacier National Park running out of A/C

Photo Gallery

 
Adam Sandler, The Weeknd attend premiere of 'Uncut Gems' in LA
Adam Sandler, The Weeknd attend premiere of 'Uncut Gems' in LA

Latest News

LSU QB Joe Burrow wins 2019 Heisman Trophy
New Zealand officials 'will make every effort' to find missing after volcano blast
Man who slapped reporter's behind on air arrested on sexual battery charge
Mother whose child was ripped from her arms by police to receive $625K settlement
Democratic candidates address teachers, advocates in Pittsburgh education forum
 
Back to Article
/
Back to top
About UPI Contact Feedback Advertisements Submit News Tips
Copyright © 2019 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Terms of UsePrivacy Policy