ABSTRACT
There are two serious obstacles that prevent development of drugs from marine natural products. Obviously, the most important is the “supply issue.” The majority of promising compounds have complex structures, which limits the ability to supply large amounts of samples by chemical synthesis. Usually, yields from organisms are quite low as well. Many researchers believe that these compounds are actually produced by
“symbiotic” microorganisms
. Yet bacteria or fungi that produce highly promising metabolites have not been isolated from parent organisms.
