ABSTRACT
An inspection of the recent literature concerning bryozoan natural prod ucts indicates that this phylum continues to provide a source of interest ing secondary metabolites. While certain bryozoan natural products such as the bryostatins are of great interest to the biomedical community, the number of new bioactive compounds from this group certainly does not compare with that from other marine phyla such as Porifera and Cnidaria. Much of the bryozoan literature has focused on the continued develop ment of the antineoplastic bryostatins, with the isolation of novel alka loids also receiving a significant amount of attention. There have been only a handful of reports of other classes of natural products from bryozoans. A relatively new focus of marine natural products research is an examination of the role of microorganisms in the production of bioactive metabolites isolated from marine invertebrates. This question has been addressed with selected bryozoan natural products and recent results suggest that this will continue to be an important area of research.
