page_title: Sponge
section_title: Other biologically active compounds
hierarchical_section_title: Sponge / Use / By humans / Other biologically active compounds
caption_attribution_description: English: Halichondria and Eribulin
context_page_description: Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera, are a basal Metazoa clade as a sister of the Diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate through them, consisting of jelly-like mesohyl sandwiched between two thin layers of cells. The branch of zoology that studies sponges is known as spongiology.
  Sponges have unspecialized cells that can transform into other types and that often migrate between the main cell layers and the mesohyl in the process. Sponges do not have nervous, digestive or circulatory systems. Instead, most rely on maintaining a constant water flow through their bodies to obtain food and oxygen and to remove wastes. Sponges were first to branch off the evolutionary tree from the common ancestor of all animals, making them the sister group of all other animals.
context_section_description: Lacking any protective shell or means of escape, sponges have evolved to synthesize a variety of unusual compounds. One such class is the oxidized fatty acid derivatives called oxylipins. Members of this family have been found to have anti-cancer, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. One example isolated from the Okinawan plakortis sponges, plakoridine A, has shown potential as a cytotoxin to murine lymphoma cells.
caption: Halichondria produces the eribulin precursor halichondrin B
exif: {"Image Make": "Nikon", "Image Model": "Nikon COOLSCAN V ED", "Image Software": "Nikon Scan 4.0.2 W", "Image DateTime": "2009.09.03 22.34.21", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "152", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2580", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1760", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "12"}