Mechanisms Underlying Metabolic Regulation by Marine Toxins

Dear Colleagues,

Marine toxins are broadly defined as natural products with potent deleterious bioactivity against molecular targets in a host of marine and terrestrial species. These compounds are synthesized by and/or accumulated in the marine food web, often manifesting as seafood toxins or causing morbidity and mortality to marine fauna. Typical marine toxins are small molecules (<3000 Daltons) that belong to diverse structural classes such as alkaloids, secondary amino acids or polyether polyketides, or comprise specialized peptide/proteinaceous molecules. Their potency as toxins is usually defined with respect to mammalian targets, and this may tend to obscure their ecological function in chemical communication, defense against predation, competition, and transitions in the marine environment. Marine toxins continue to be carefully scrutinized in the search for pharmaceuticals, e.g., as analgesics against acute and chronic pain, anti-microbials (e.g., bacteria, fungi, microeukaryotes, and viruses), anti-cancer/anti-proliferative agents, and as neuropharmaceuticals. These discoveries are dependent upon obtaining more detailed knowledge of their role as enzyme inhibitors, cell cycle blockers, membrane disruptors, and ion channel effectors. Most of the chemical structures are well defined, and in a few cases, the biosynthetic pathways have been elucidated. The knowledge of the molecular, genetic regulation of toxin biosynthesis in producing species and the metabolic response of the target cells, tissues, and whole organisms cannot define the functional role of putative toxins. This Special Issue will focus on these mechanisms in natural species interactions, cell and whole-animal assays, and electrophysiology studies. Contributions leading to further insights in metabolomics and subsequent molecular modelling of the mode(s) of action of marine toxins are particularly welcome.

Prof. Dr. Allan Cembella
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Toxins is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• chemical ecology
• marine toxin
• ecotoxicology
• phycotoxins
• marine bioactives
• toxin biosynthesis
• metabolic regulation
• toxin mode of action
• toxin modelling
• metabolomics

• Harmful Algal Bloom Dynamics in Toxins (4 articles)
• Bioactivity and Chemical Ecological Interactions of Marine Toxins in Toxins (5 articles)