TY - JOUR
T1 - Linking neuroethology to the chemical biology of natural products
T2 - interactions between cone snails and their fish prey, a case study
AU - Olivera, Baldomero M.
AU - Raghuraman, Shrinivasan
AU - Schmidt, Eric W.
AU - Safavi-Hemami, Helena
PY - 2017/10
Y1 - 2017/10
N2 - From a biological perspective, a natural product can be defined as a compound evolved by an organism for chemical interactions with another organism including prey, predator, competitor, pathogen, symbiont or host. Natural products hold tremendous potential as drug leads and have been extensively studied by chemists and biochemists in the pharmaceutical industry. However, the biological purpose for which a natural product evolved is rarely addressed. By focusing on a well-studied group of natural products—venom components from predatory marine cone snails—this review provides a rationale for why a better understanding of the evolution, biology and biochemistry of natural products will facilitate both neuroscience and the potential for drug leads. The larger goal is to establish a new sub-discipline in the broader field of neuroethology that we refer to as “Chemical Neuroethology”, linking the substantial work carried out by chemists on natural products with accelerating advances in neuroethology.
AB - From a biological perspective, a natural product can be defined as a compound evolved by an organism for chemical interactions with another organism including prey, predator, competitor, pathogen, symbiont or host. Natural products hold tremendous potential as drug leads and have been extensively studied by chemists and biochemists in the pharmaceutical industry. However, the biological purpose for which a natural product evolved is rarely addressed. By focusing on a well-studied group of natural products—venom components from predatory marine cone snails—this review provides a rationale for why a better understanding of the evolution, biology and biochemistry of natural products will facilitate both neuroscience and the potential for drug leads. The larger goal is to establish a new sub-discipline in the broader field of neuroethology that we refer to as “Chemical Neuroethology”, linking the substantial work carried out by chemists on natural products with accelerating advances in neuroethology.
KW - Chemical neuroethology
KW - Cone snail venom
KW - Natural products
KW - Toxin cabals
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85019771075&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s00359-017-1183-7
DO - 10.1007/s00359-017-1183-7
M3 - Review
C2 - 28551870
AN - SCOPUS:85019771075
SN - 0340-7594
VL - 203
SP - 717
EP - 735
JO - Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology
JF - Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology
IS - 9
ER -