ABSTRACT

" IS CHEMISTRY AN USEFUL TOOL IN INVESTIGATING BIOLOGY, TAXONOMY AND ECOLOGY OF OPISTHOBRANCHS? "

Opisthobranchs are among the most beautiful marine organisms. Many authoritative biologists have deeply investigated their biology, taxonomy and ecology reaching extraordinary results. More recently, opisthobranchs have also attracted the attention of marine chemists. In fact, because of the reduction or loss of the shell, these molluscs seem to be unprotected.
However, they are rarely victims of predators. Probably, some chemicals play a key role for their survival. Chemical studies led to characterize many molecules which play a defensive role. Many are obtained by the molluscs from their dietary source, others are constructed by biomodifying dietary compounds, others are biosynthetized de novo by the mollusc. Chemicals can be useful "markers" in order to know the feeding habits of the opisthobranchs. They can be also useful in connecting related species and in resolving some conflicting taxonomic attribution. Probably, the chemical language controls the relationships among marine organisms giving a substantial contribution to the equilibrium of the marine ecosystem. Finally, a fascinating idea is that of constructing an evolutionary scenario on the basis of chemical evidence. All these topics will be discussed through the presentation of a series of selected chemical studies of opisthobranchs belonging to the orders Cephalaspidea, Notaspidea, Sacoglossa, Anaspidea and Nudibranchia. The results which will be presented suggest that potential applications useful for the man can be reached studying opisthobranch molluscs. In fact, opisthobranchs possess many bioactive molecules which could be extraordinary candidates for a pharmacological screening. Of course, ambitious projects with these aims could be realized only constructing a multidisciplinary network which closely links marine biologists to marine chemists.

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