Journal of Chemical Ecology

, Volume 40, Issue 9, pp 1013–1024 | Cite as

Defense in the Aeolidoidean Genus Phyllodesmium (Gastropoda)

  • Alexander Bogdanov
  • Stefan Kehraus
  • Sabrina Bleidissel
  • Gela Preisfeld
  • Dorothee Schillo
  • Jörn Piel
  • Alexander O. Brachmann
  • Heike Wägele
  • Gabriele M. König
Article
First Online:
Received:
Revised:
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Abstract

The genus Phyllodesmium (Aeolidoidea, Gastropoda) comprises shell-less marine snails, whose defense strategies are not well investigated yet. Here we report results of the first chemical investigation of P. briareum, as well as a re-investigation of P. longicirrum and P. magnum. Briarane diterpenes were isolated from P. briareum, and their origin could be traced to its prey organism Briareum sp. (Octocorallia). Considerable enrichment of the soft coral secondary metabolites in the slug was shown. Re-investigation of P. magnum led to isolation of cembrane diterpenes, 2-phenylethylamide, and furano sesquiterpenes. Sequestration of chemicals seems to have influenced speciation and evolution of Phyllodesmium species. Structural similarity or dissimilarity of particular slug metabolites suggests a closer, or more distant relationship of the respective Phyllodesmium taxa.

Keywords

Phyllodesmium Evolution Chemoecology Heterobranchia Nudibranchia Natural compounds 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Dana Obermann, who detected the single specimen of Phyllodesmium magnum in the aquaristic shop in Bonn and brought it to us for further analysis. We thank the German Science Foundation for support to two authors: HW (Wa618/10-1) and GK (Ko 902/8-1).

Supplementary material

10886_2014_496_MOESM1_ESM.doc (4.7 mb)
ESM 1 (DOC 4836 kb)

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  • Alexander Bogdanov
    • 1
  • Stefan Kehraus
    • 1
  • Sabrina Bleidissel
    • 2
  • Gela Preisfeld
    • 2
  • Dorothee Schillo
    • 3
  • Jörn Piel
    • 4
  • Alexander O. Brachmann
    • 4
  • Heike Wägele
    • 3
  • Gabriele M. König
    • 1
  1. 1.Institute for Pharmaceutical BiologyUniversity of BonnBonnGermany
  2. 2.Faculty of Mathematics and Natural SciencesUniversity of WuppertalWuppertalGermany
  3. 3.Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander KoenigBonnGermany
  4. 4.Institute of MicrobiologyEidgenoessische Technische Hochschule (ETH) ZurichZurichSwitzerland

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