Three new O-isocrotonyl-3-hydroxybutyric acid congeners produced by a sea anemone-derived marine bacterium of the genus Vibrio.

Liquid cultures of Vibrio sp. SI9, isolated from the outer tissue of the sea anemone Radianthus crispus, was found to produce three new O-isocrotonyl-3-hydroxybutyric acid derivatives, O-isocrotonyl-3-hydroxypentanoic acid (1), O-isocrotonyl-3-hydroxyhexanoic acid (2), and O-(Z)-2-hexenoyl-3-hydroxybutyric acid (3), together with the known O-isocrotonyl-3-hydroxybutyric acid (4). The structures of 1-3 were established by NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry, coupled with anisotropy-based chiral analysis, revealing the same R-configuration for all congeners 1-4. The compounds 1-4 were weakly growth-inhibitory against a marine fish ulcer pathogenic bacterium, Tenacibaculum maritimum NBRC16015. Structural similarities among 1-4, the O-isocrotonylated 3-hydroxybutyrate oligomers 5, and microbial biopolymer polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) suggest the presence of a common biosynthetic machinery, and hence a possible dehydrative modification at the hydroxy terminus of PHA.