Free amino acids in some sponges

Most invertebrates, particularly those of marine origin, have relatively high concentrations of free amino acids which are considered an important constituent of their osmoregulatory mechanisms 1]. Very little information is available on the free amino acid distribution in Porifera 2,3]. Common amino acids in some sponges were recognised by paper chromatography by Inskip and Cassidy 4] and Ackermann et al. 5,6] included a few sponges in their survey of the occurence of nitrogen compounds in marine invertebrates. More recently Bergquist and Hartman 7] surveyed semiquantitatively the distribution of free amino acids in several sponges. In the present paper we report on the amino acid composition of 12 species of sponges belonging to the class Demospongiae as a part of a study on the metabolites of Porifera 8]. Fresh sponges were extracted with aqueous ethanol. The organic solvent was removed and the aqueous solution, after removal of the ether soluble compounds, was separated into cationic, anionic and neutral fractions by ion-exchange chromatography. The cation fraction was analysed for amino acids using an automatic amino acid analyser. The results, which are presented in Table 1, show that all species of sponges examined have a similar composition in common amino acids. Glycine almost always appears as the dominant protein amino acid, followed by high concentrations of alanine and glutamic acid, whereas relatively lower concentrations of basic amino acids are present. In Axinella cannabina, Chondrosia reniformis, Chondrilla nucula, Cliona viridis and Hymeniacidon sanguinea, glycine represents more than 77% of the total amino acids. The high percentage of free glycine (90.4%) in Chondrosia reniformis is noteworthy. The anionic and the neutral fractions were examined for sulfur-containing amino acids using PC. Taurine (Table 2) was detected in all the Porifera examined; this is in agreement with previous observations 5–7]. N-Methyltaurine was identified in some of the species examined, whereas neither N,N-dimethyltaurine nor N,N,N-trimethyltaurine were found.