H. Martin Garraffo

Oribatid mites as a major dietary source for alkaloids in poison frogs

Alkaloids in the skin glands of poison frogs serve as a chemical defense against predation, and almost all of these alkaloids appear to be sequestered from dietary arthropods. Certain alkaloid-containing ants have been considered the primary dietary source, but dietary sources for the majority of alkaloids remain unknown. Herein we report the presence of ≈80 alkaloids from extracts of oribatid mites collected throughout Costa Rica and Panama, which represent 11 of the ≈24 structural classes of alkaloids known in poison frogs. Forty-one of these alkaloids also occur in the dendrobatid poison frog, Oophaga pumilio, which co-occurs with the collected mites. These shared alkaloids include twenty-five 5,8-disubstituted or 5,6,8-trisubstituted indolizidines; one 1,4-disubstituted quinolizidine; three pumiliotoxins; and one homopumiliotoxin. All but the last of these alkaloid classes occur widely in poison frogs. In addition, nearly 40 alkaloids of unknown structure were detected in mites; none of these alkaloids have been identified in frog extracts. Two of these alkaloids are homopumiliotoxins, five appear to be izidines, four appear to be tricyclics, and six are related in structure to poison frog alkaloids that are currently unclassified as to structure. Mites are common in the diet of O. pumilio, as well as in the diets of other poison frogs. The results of this study indicate that mites are a significant arthropod repository of a variety of alkaloids and represent a major dietary source of alkaloids in poison frogs.

Dietary source for skin alkaloids of poison frogs (Dendrobatidae)

A wide range of alkaloids, many of which are unknown elsewhere in nature, occur in skin of frogs. Major classes of such alkaloids in dendrobatid frogs are the batrachotoxins, pumiliotoxins, histrionicotoxins, gephyrotoxins, and decahydroquinolines. Such alkaloids are absent in skin of frogs (Dendrobates auratus) raised in Panama on wingless fruit flies in indoor terraria. Raised on leaf-litter arthropods that were collected in a mainland site, such terraria-raised frogs contain tricyclic alkaloids including the beetle alkaloid precoccinelline, 1,4-disubstituted quinolizidines, pyrrolizidine oximes, the millipede alkaloid nitropolyzonamine, a decahydroquinoline, a gephyrotoxin, and histrionicotoxins. The profiles of these alkaloids in the captive-raised frogs are closer to the mainland population ofDendrobates auratus at the leaf-litter site than to the parent population ofDendrobates auratus from a nearby island site. Extracts of a seven-month sampling of leaf-litter insects contained precoccinelline, pyrrolizidine oxime236 (major), and nitropolyzonamine (238). The results indicate a dietary origin for at least some “dendrobatid alkaloids,” in particular the pyrrolizidine oximes, the tricyclic coccinellines, and perhaps the histrionicotoxins and gephyrotoxins.

Bioactive alkaloids of frog skin: Combinatorial bioprospecting reveals that pumiliotoxins have an arthropod source

Nearly 500 alkaloids have been detected in skin extracts from frogs of the family Dendrobatidae. All seem to have been sequestered unchanged into skin glands from alkaloid-containing arthropods. Ants, beetles, and millipedes seem to be the source of decahydroquinolines, certain izidines, coccinellines, and spiropyrrolizidine oximes. But the dietary source for a major group of frog-skin alkaloids, namely the pumiliotoxins (PTXs), alloPTXs, and homoPTXs, remained a mystery. In hopes of revealing an arthropod source for the PTX group, small arthropods were collected from eight different sites on a Panamanian island, where the dendrobatid frog (Dendrobates pumilio) was known to contain high levels of two PTXs. The mixed arthropod collections from several sites, each representing up to 20 arthropod taxa, contained PTX 307A and/or alloPTX 323B. In addition, the mixed arthropod collections from several sites contained a 5,8-disubstituted indolizidine (205A or 235B), representing another class of alkaloids previously unknown from an arthropod. An ant alkaloid, decahydroquinoline 195A, was detected in the mixed arthropod collections from several sites. Thus, “combinatorial bioprospecting” demonstrates that further collection and analysis of individual taxa of leaf-litter arthropods should reveal the taxa from which PTXs, alloPTXs, and 5,8-disubstituted indolizidines are derived.

A review of chemical ecology in poison frogs

Herein we review what is known about the chemical ecology of poison frogs with a focus on dendrobatid poison frogs. While five anuran families are known to have an alkaloid-derived chemical defense, the dendrobatids have been studied in greatest detail and provides chemical ecologists with a complex model system for understanding how chemical defenses operate in real time and may have evolved through evolutionary time. We describe the diversity of alkaloid defenses known from frogs, alkaloid sequestration, biosynthesis and modification, and we review what is known concerning arthropod sources for alkaloids. There is variation in nearly every attribute of the system and we try to describe some of the challenges associated with unraveling the complexities of this model system.

Alkaloids from frog skin: the discovery of epibatidine and the potential for developing novel non-opioid analgesics

Research on the nature, structure and biological activity of the toxins present in the skin of poison-dart frogs of South America began in the Laboratory of Chemistry at the National Institutes of Health in the mid-1960s. The presence of toxins in the skin of such frogs had been discovered long ago by Indians of Western Colombia, who to this day use skin secretions from three Colombian species of dendrobatid frogs (genus Phyllobates) to poison the grooved tips of blow darts used in hunting small game and birds. Initial field work on a poison-dart frog of the Rio San Juan drainage, and preparation of extracts was first conducted by F. Marki in 1962 and then by Daly in 1964 and 1966. The toxic principles were isolated and proved on structural analysis to be steroidal alkaloids, which were named batrachotoxins.1 These were then shown to be specific and potent activators of sodium channels.2 Both the natural alkaloids and a radioactive analog have proven to be invaluable research tools for the study of sodium channels and their interaction with local anesthetics, anticonvulsants, antiarrythmics and other drugs.3 The structure of batrachotoxin and other alkaloids, subsequently isolated from frog skin, are shown in Fig. 1. These initial studies on the batrachotoxin alkaloids from the poison-dart frogs of Western Colombia might never have been extended to some sixty species of poison-frogs of the neotropical family Dendrobatidae, had not Charles W. Myers, a herpetologist working on the reptiles and amphibians of Panama, contacted Daly and proposed a collaboration on the toxicity of an extremely variable dendrobatid frog (genus Dendrobates) of the Bocas Archipelago of Panama. The initial hypothesis, namely that the more brightly colored populations would contain higher levels of toxic alkaloids, proved incorrect. However, the analyses revealed not the steroidal batrachotoxins, but instead a variety of simpler bicyclic alkaloids, including the relatively toxic pumiliotoxins and relatively nontoxic decahydroquinolines.4 The pumiliotoxins and related alkaloids later were shown to be potent myotonic/cardiotonic agents5 with modulatory effects on sodium channels.6 The initial field work by Myers and Daly led to a thirty year friendship and collaboration with the aim of analyzing the distribution, nature, structure and biological activity of alkaloids in frog skin. A major field trip by Myers and Daly in the early 1970s led to the isolation and structural determination of relatively nontoxic bicyclic histrionicotoxins,7 later established as highaffinity noncompetitive blockers of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor-channels (nAChRs).3 Over the next three decades more than 500 alkaloids of at least two dozen structural classes were discovered, most of which have, as yet, not been found elsewhere in nature.8,9 This is remarkable, since the dendrobatid frogs apparently do not synthesize any of their skin alkaloids, but instead sequester them unchanged into skin glands from dietary sources10 to be used as secreted chemical deterrents to predators. The search over the past five years for the dietary sources of the batrachotoxins, pumiliotoxins and histrionicotoxins has been frustrating, but some six classes of relatively simple decahydroquinolines, piperidines, pyrrolidines and “izidines” of dendrobatid frog skin have been found in ants, while certain of the tricyclic and spiropyrrolizidine alkaloids occur in beetles and millipedes, respectively.10,11 Fig. 1 Structures of epibatidine and other alkaloids discovered in skin extracts from poison frogs (family Dendrobatidae). Batrachotoxin from Colombian Phyllobates aurotaenia,1 pumiliotoxin B from Panamanian Dendrobates pumilio,4 histrionicotoxin from Colombian Dendrobates histrionicus,7 and epibatidine and alkaloids 251D, 251H and 341A from Ecuadorian Epipedobates tricolor.12–14,16 EMINENT SCIENTIST REVIEW

Further Alkaloids Common to Ants and Frogs: Decahydroquinolines and a Quinolizidine

Three alkaloids—two minor decahydroquinolines (DHQs) and a major quinolizidine—were detected in an extract of a Brazilian myrmicine ant (Solenopsis (Diplorhoptrum) sp. picea group). One DHQ (3) was identical to a known frog-skin alkaloid, cis-195A (cis-5-methyl-2-propyldecahydroquinoline), while the second DHQ, an isomer of 3, designated 195J, was assigned a tentative cis-2-methyl-5-propyldecahydroquinoline structure (2) based on mass and infrared spectra. The third alkaloid proved identical to the frog-skin alkaloid 195C, for which a structure had not been previously proposed. Mass and infrared spectral analysis, including chemical ionization tandem mass spectrometry, indicated a 4-methyl-6-propylquinolizidine structure (1) for 195C. The four possible diastereomers were synthesized and the (6Z,10E)-4-methyl-6-propylquinolizidine diastereomer (1b) was identical to the natural alkaloid. Skin extracts of a population of a Madagascan mantelline frog contained, among other alkaloids, minor amounts of the same alkaloid triad 1–3 with 1 again predominating. The common occurrence of alkaloids 1–3 in both ant and frog supports the hypothesis that ants are a likely dietary source for sequestered frog-skin alkaloids and brings to six, the alkaloid classes common to ant and frog.

Synthesis and nicotinic activity of epiboxidine : an isoxazole analogue of epibatidine

Synthetic (+/-)-epiboxidine (exo-2-(3-methyl-5-isoxazolyl)-7-azabicyclo[2.2.1]heptane) is a methylisoxazole analog of the alkaloid epibatidine, itself a potent nicotinic receptor agonist with antinociceptive activity. Epiboxidine contains a methylisoxazolyl ring replacing the chloropyridinyl ring of epibatidine. Thus, it is also an analog of another nicotinic receptor agonist, ABT 418 ((S)-3-methyl-5-(1-methyl-2-pyrrolidinyl)isoxazole), in which the pyridinyl ring of nicotine has been replaced by the methylisoxazolyl ring. Epiboxidine was about 10-fold less potent than epibatidine and about 17-fold more potent than ABT 418 in inhibiting [3H]nicotine binding to alpha 4 beta 2 nicotinic receptors in rat cerebral cortical membranes. In cultured cells with functional ion flux assays, epiboxidine was nearly equipotent to epibatidine and 200-fold more potent than ABT 418 at alpha 3 beta 4(5) nicotinic receptors in PC12 cells. Epiboxidine was about 5-fold less potent than epibatidine and about 30-fold more potent than ABT 418 in TE671 cells with alpha 1 beta 1 gamma delta nicotinic receptors. In a hot-plate antinociceptive assay with mice, epiboxidine was about 10-fold less potent than epibatidine. However, epiboxidine was also much less toxic than epibatidine in mice.

Geographic and Seasonal Variation in Alkaloid-Based Chemical Defenses of Dendrobates pumilio from Bocas del Toro, Panama

Poison frogs contain an alkaloid-based chemical defense that is derived from a diet of certain alkaloid-containing arthropods, which include mites, ants, beetles, and millipedes. Variation in population-level alkaloid profiles among species has been documented, and more than 800 different alkaloids have been identified. In the present study, we examine individual alkaloid variation in the dendrobatid poison frog Dendrobates pumilio among seven populations and between two seasons on Isla Bastimentos, located in the Bocas del Toro archipelago of Panama. Alkaloid profiles vary among populations and between seasons, illustrating that chemical defense in this species can vary on a small spatial and temporal scale. Alkaloid variation among populations is marginally correlated with geographic distance, and close populations have profiles more similar to each other than to distant populations. Individuals within populations also vary in alkaloid profiles. Differences are attributed to both spatial and temporal variations in the availability of alkaloid-containing arthropods. Many of the alkaloids present in the skin of D. pumilio appear likely to be of ant origin, supporting the importance of myrmecophagy in chemical defense among poison frogs. However, a variety of frog skin alkaloids was recently detected in mites, suggesting that mites may also play an important role in chemical defense.

Identification of a Cryptococcus neoformans Cytochrome P450 Lanosterol 14α-Demethylase (Erg11) Residue Critical for Differential Susceptibility between Fluconazole/Voriconazole and Itraconazole/Posaconazole

ABSTRACT Cryptococcus neoformans strains resistant to azoles due to mutations causing alterations in the ERG11 gene, encoding lanosterol 14α-demethylase, have rarely been reported. In this study, we have characterized a C. neoformans serotype A strain that is resistant to high concentrations of fluconazole (FLC). This strain, which was isolated from an FLC-treated patient, contained five missense mutations in the ERG11 gene compared to the sequence of reference strain H99. Molecular manipulations of the ERG11 gene coupled with susceptibility to triazole revealed that a single missense mutation resulting in the replacement of tyrosine by phenylalanine at amino acid 145 was sufficient to cause the high FLC resistance of the strain. Importantly, this newly identified point mutation in the ERG11 gene of C. neoformans afforded resistance to voriconazole (VRC) but increased susceptibility to itraconazole (ITC) and posaconazole (PSC), which are structurally similar to each other but distinct from FLC/VRC. The in vitro susceptibility/resistance of the strains with or without the missense mutation was reflected in the therapeutic efficacy of FLC versus ITC in the animals infected with the strains. This study shows the importance of the Y145F alteration of Erg11 in C. neoformans for manifestation of differential susceptibility toward different triazoles. It underscores the necessity of in vitro susceptibility testing for each FLC-resistant C. neoformans clinical isolate against different groups of azoles in order to assist patient management.

Variability in alkaloid profiles in neotropical poison frogs (Dendrobatidae): Genetic versus environmental determinants

Dendrobatid frogs produce a diverse set of alkaloids, whose profiles appear characteristic of frogs of each species or, in the case of variable species, of each population. In the case of one widespread species, Dendrobates auratus, alkaloid profiles in extracts of skin are markedly different in three populations, one from a Pacific island, Isla Taboga, Panama, one from central mountains in Panama, and the third from the Caribbean coast in Costa Rica. The first contains three major classes of dendrobatid alkaloids, the histrionicotoxins, the pumiliotoxin-A class and the decahydroquinolines. The second contains mainly histrionicotoxins, pumiliotoxin-A class alkaloids and one indolizidine. The third contains histrionicotoxins, a homopumiliotoxin, one decahydroquinoline, and a variety of indolizidines, quinolizidines and pyrrolizidines. Frogs from Isla Taboga or a nearby island were introduced into the Manoa Valley, Oahu, Hawaii, in 1932. Remarkably, although alkaloids of the pumiliotoxin-A class and one decahydroquinoline are still major constituents in skin extracts of Hawaiian frogs descended from the 1932 founding population, histrionicotoxins are absent and a novel tricyclic alkaloid is present. Offspring of wild-caught parents from Hawaii, Panama or Costa Rica raised in indoor terrariums on a diet of crickets and fruit flies do not contain detectable amounts of skin alkaloids. Offspring raised in large outside terrariums in Hawaii and fed mainly wild-caught termites and fruit flies do contain the same profile of alkaloids as their wild-caught parents in Hawaii, but at reduced levels. The genetic, environmental and dietary determinants of alkaloid profiles in dendrobatid frogs remain obscure, in particular the underlying cause for total absence in terrarium-reared frogs.