ABSTRACT
A variety of biologically and physiologically active secondary metabolites have been isolated from marine sources. In particular, huge polyol and polyether compounds composed of a long carbon backbone functionalized by oxygen atoms, so-called “super-carbon-chain (SCC) compounds” (Uemura 1991, 2010) such as palytoxin, halichondrin, ciguatoxin, and maitotoxin, are some of the most attractive molecules in natural products chemistry (Yasumoto and Murata 1993; Murata and Yasumoto 2000; Kita and Uemura 2005, 2007; Uemura 2006; Uemura et al. 2009). It has been suggested that the primary producers of such secondary metabolites may be microalgae, bacteria, and fungi, and they are carried through symbiosis, association, a food chain, and other forms of nutrientdependency (Shimizu 1993, 1996, 2003; Daranas, Norte, and Fernández 2001; Kita and Uemura 2006; Ueda and Uemura 2007; Nakamura, Kitamura, and Uemura 2009). Among them, symbiotic marine dinoagellates have attracted the attention of natural products chemists, biologists, and ecologists, since they are rich sources of unique bioactive secondary metabolites.
