Marine microorganisms have gained c

Marine microorganisms have gained considerable attention
as an important source of novel secondary metabolites [1].
Strains of the Alcanivorax group were first isolated from
the North Sea as biosurfactant-producing and alkanedegrading
marine bacteria, and have also been found
in a variety of marine environments including oil spillcontaminated
sites [2, 3]. These strains have been shown
to be important for the biodegradation of petroleum
hydrocarbons in a marine environment, especially under
bioremediation conditions [4]. During a series of
investigations of new metabolites from marine
microorganisms [5, 6], we found a novel a-pyrone,
alcanivorone (1), from the culture broth of A. jadensis
(former name: Fundibacter jadensis [7]). We describe
in this paper the production, structural determination