Fluorescent Profiling of Natural Product Producers.

This article focuses on the fluorescent profiling of natural product producers. The biosynthesis of natural products has long been established as a means of regulating social interactions in both aquatic and terrestrial ecologies including aspects of chemical defense, symbiosis, parasitism, and predation. Several benthic dinoflagellates of the genus Prorocentrum synthesize okadaic acid, a potent protein phosphatase (PP) inhibitor associated with diarrheic shellfish poisoning and certain harmful algal blooms. A set of fluorescent analogues was synthesized to probe the cellular processing of PP inhibitors. For this study, a multiwell plate assay was used to determine the uptake of each natural product analogue.