Marine life has provided mankind with unique and extraordinary chemical structures and scaffolds with potent biological activities. Many organisms and secondary metabolites derived from fungi and symbionts are found to be more environmentally friendly to study than the marine corals per se. Marine symbionts such as Aspergillus sp., a fungus, which can be isolated and grown in the lab would be a potential and continuous source of bioactive natural compounds without affecting the marine environment. The Red Sea is known for its biodiversity and is well-studied in terms of its marine-derived bioactive metabolites. The harsh environmental conditions lead to the development of unique metabolic pathways. This, in turn, results in enhanced synthesis and release of toxic and bioactive chemicals. Interestingly, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman carry a variety of environmental stresses, some of which are similar to the Red Sea. When compared to the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf has been shown to be rich in marine fungi as well, and is, therefore, expected to contain elaborate and interesting bioactive compounds. Such compounds may or may not be similar to the ones isolated from the Red Sea environment. Astoundingly, there are a very limited number of studies on the bioactive portfolio of marine-derived metabolites from the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. In this perspective, we are looking at the Red Sea as a comparator marine environment and bioactive materials repertoire to provide a futuristic perspective on the potential of the understudied and possibly overlooked bioactive metabolites derived from the marine life of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman despite its proven biodiversity and harsher environmental stress.

中文翻译：

---

波斯湾与红海衍生的生物活性海洋代谢物：相似的环境和药物发现的巨大差距


海洋生物为人类提供了独特而非凡的化学结构和具有强大生物活性的支架。人们发现，许多源自真菌和共生体的生物体和次生代谢物比海洋珊瑚本身更适合研究环境。海洋共生体，如曲霉属真菌，可以在实验室中分离和培养，将成为生物活性天然化合物的潜在和持续来源，而不影响海洋环境。红海以其生物多样性而闻名，并且对其海洋来源的生物活性代谢物进行了深入研究。恶劣的环境条件导致独特的代谢途径的发展。这反过来又导致有毒和生物活性化学物质的合成和释放增强。有趣的是，波斯湾和阿曼湾承受着各种环境压力，其中一些与红海类似。与红海相比，波斯湾也被证明富含海洋真菌，因此预计含有复杂且有趣的生物活性化合物。这些化合物可能与从红海环境中分离出的化合物相似，也可能不相似。令人惊讶的是，关于波斯湾和阿曼湾海洋代谢物的生物活性组合的研究数量非常有限。从这个角度来看，我们将红海视为比较海洋环境和生物活性材料库，以便为来自波斯湾和阿曼湾海洋生物的未充分研究和可能被忽视的生物活性代谢物的潜力提供未来视角尽管其生物多样性已得到证实，并且环境压力更加严峻。