http://www.mdpi.com/journal/marinedrugs/special_issues/mar-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 . http://www.mdpi.com/1660-3397/8/4/1011/ Marine dinoflagellates are the single most important group of algae that produce toxins, which have a global impact on human activities. The toxins are chemically diverse, and include macrolides, cyclic polyethers, spirolides and purine alkaloids. Whereas there is a multitude of studies describing the pharmacology of these toxins, there is limited or no knowledge regarding the biochemistry and molecular genetics involved in their biosynthesis. Recently, however, exciting advances have been made. Expressed sequence tag sequencing studies have revealed important insights into the transcriptomes of dinoflagellates, whereas other studies have implicated polyketide synthase genes in the biosynthesis of cyclic polyether toxins, and the molecular genetic basis for the biosynthesis of paralytic shellfish toxins has been elucidated in cyanobacteria. This review summarises the recent progress that has been made regarding the unusual genomes of dinoflagellates, the biosynthesis and molecular genetics of dinoflagellate toxins. In addition, the evolution of these metabolic pathways will be discussed, and an outlook for future research and possible applications is provided. http://www.mdpi.com/1660-3397/8/4/1011/ Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:00:00 CEST Marine Drugs 2010-03-31 8 4 Review 1011 1048 1660-3397 Biosynthesis and Molecular Genetics of Polyketides in Marine Dinoflagellates 2010-03-31 doi: 10.3390/md8041011 Kellmann Stüken Orr Svendsen Jakobsen http://www.mdpi.com/1660-3397/8/3/763/ The proposed biosynthetic pathways to ladder polyethers of polyketide origin and oxasqualenoids of terpenoid origin share a dramatic epoxide-opening cascade as a key step. Polycyclic structures generated in these biosynthetic pathways display biological effects ranging from potentially therapeutic properties to extreme lethality. Much of the structural complexity of ladder polyether and oxasqualenoid natural products can be traced to these hypothesized cascades. In this review we summarize how such epoxide-opening cascade reactions have been used in the synthesis of ladder polyethers and oxasqualenoid natural products. http://www.mdpi.com/1660-3397/8/3/763/ Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:00:00 CET Marine Drugs 2010-03-19 8 3 Review 763 809 1660-3397 Synthesis of Marine Polycyclic Polyethers via Endo-Selective Epoxide-Opening Cascades 2010-03-19 doi: 10.3390/md8030763 Vilotijevic Jamison