Special Issue "Marine Dinoflagellates"

Guest Editor
Dr. Andrea Bourdelais
Center for Marine Science, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 5600 Marvin K. Moss Lane, Wilmington NC, 28409, USA
E-Mail: bourdelaisa@uncw.edu
Phone: +1 910 962 2365
Fax: +1 910 962 2410
Interests: isolation and structure elucidation of bioactive marine natural products; polyether compounds; bioassay screening; high content screening; quantitative analysis of marine toxins; harmful algal blooms; Florida red tide; marine dinoflagellates

Dear Colleagues,

Dinoflagellates comprise a diverse class of flagellated protists found in marine and fresh water environments. Of the approximately 2000 living species about 1700 species are found in marine environments. Due to the complex nature of the marine environment these microorganisms have developed unique biosynthetic machinery for the production of metabolites with unusual chemical structures and potent biological activities. Naturally produced chemical families include polyethers, macrolides, polyhydroxy compounds, heterocycles, polyketals, amino acids, terpenes, phytopigments, and purine derivatives. Although metabolites produced by these micro-organisms are known for their cytotoxicity, many have show selective activity in biological systems for example: saxitoxins are selective sodium channel blockers, brevetoxins and ciguatoxins selectively activate sodium channels, and maitotoxins act on calcium channels. Other metabolites have been found to inhibit enzymes (okadaic acid), yet others have show potent activity as anti-fungal (gamberic acids) or anti-tumor (amphidinols) agents. Because of their unprecedented biosynthetic capabilities and ease of culture, dinoflagellates provide a renewable source for novel chemical structures that may be used as biological tools or drug candidates. This special issue will be devoted to the bioactivity of both natural and chemically modified dinoflagellate metabolites as well the biosynthetic pathways involved in their production.

Dr. Andrea J. Bourdelais
Guest Editor

Submission

All papers should be submitted to marinedrugs@mdpi.com with a copy to the Guest Editor. Papers will be published continuously until the deadline and will be listed together at the special issue website. Research articles and review articles are both invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editors for announcement on this website.

Submitted papers should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere. All papers are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors, sample copies and other relevant information for submitting papers are available on the Instructions for Authors page. Marine Drugs is an international peer-reviewed quarterly journal published by Molecular Diversity Preservation International.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a paper. Open Access Article Processing Charges are 1000 CHF per paper. English correction fees (250 CHF) will be added in certain cases (1250 CHF per paper for those papers that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections.). Starting 1 January 2010, Article Processing Charges are of 1400 CHF per accepted article for Marine Drugs

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• marine natural products
• bioactive metabolites
• microalgae
• mechanism of action
• therapeutic potential
• polyethers
• phytopigments
• lipids
• marine toxins
• bioassays
• culturing
• bioactive compounds
• symbiotic relationships
• natural defenses
• biosynthesis
• semisynthetic derivatives
• bioactivity
• structure activity relationships
• environmental impact