Metabolomics and chemometrics: efficient and effective tools for the biotechnological study of the chemical diversity of natural products of the marine microbiota

Among the marine microbiota, microalgae play a crucial role in ecosystems due to their photosynthetic activity, which makes them primary producers. Within this group of microalgae, our project focuses on the dinoflagellates, as there is no doubt that, given the right conditions, they could become veritable "cellular factories" of bioactive substances with diverse applications. However, in recent decades, research on these natural products has declined due to their low availability in the natural environment and the lengthy and tedious procedures for isolating and characterizing bioactive substances. Based on these prior circumstances, this project proposes to develop a novel and appropriate standardized, rapid, cost-effective, and robust analytical procedure for the qualitative and quantitative prediction of bioactive natural products and biotoxins from dinoflagellates. This approach will allow for the predictive classification and search for bioactive compounds in complex mixtures by combining advanced, sophisticated metabolomics and chemometric analytical techniques for chemical and bioactivity data analysis. In parallel, we intend to develop a database of the chemical diversity of dinoflagellate metabolites and a dinoflagellate strain bank. This project is of great interest to the scientific and industrial community because it proposes strategies for linking chemical profiles and associated biological data in a fast, reliable, simple, inexpensive, and highly applicable manner. The challenges posed by the project require combining the generation of new knowledge with its application to technologies, products, and services that can contribute to Tenerife's scientific, technological, and business leadership in the future.

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ULL Team

• NatháLia Peixoto Nocchi Carneiro
• José Javier Fernández Castro
• José Adrián Gavín Sazatornil
• María Luisa Souto Suárez
• Ana Raquel Díaz Marrero
• Jacob Lorenzo Morale