Isolation of Isotrichophycin C and Trichophycins G–I from a Collection of Trichodesmium thiebautii

The trichophycin family of compounds are chlorinated polyketides first discovered from environmental collections of a bloom-forming Trichodesmium sp. cyanobacterium. In an effort to fully capture the chemical space of this group of metabolites, the utilization of MS/MS-based molecular networking of a Trichodesmium thiebautii extract revealed a metabolome replete with halogenated compounds. Subsequent MS-guided isolation resulted in the characterization of isotrichophycin C and trichophycins G–I (1–4). These new metabolites had intriguing structural variations from those trichophycins previously characterized, which allowed for a comparative study to examine structural features that are associated with toxicity to murine neuroblastoma cells. Additionally, we propose the absolute configuration of the previously characterized trichophycin A (5). Overall, the metabolome of the Trichodesmium bloom is hallmarked by an unprecedented amount of chlorinated molecules, many of which remain to be structurally characterized.