Aquaculture of "non-food organisms" for natural substance production

Marine invertebrates are already sources of commercially important secondary metabolites and may become even more so as knowledge on marine natural products and chemical ecology develops. Among the producers of these compounds predominantly sponges, bryozoa and molluscs have received the attention of academic and industrial research and development. For all these invertebrate groups culture techniques have been developed encompassing in situ, laboratory and cell culture approaches for the production of natural products. Potential applications of these are not restricted to pharmaceuticals but include marine cements, biominerals and antifouling compounds. In addition, markets exist for ornamental species. All culture approaches require sound ecological knowledge about the organisms to be cultured and possible symbiotic interactions between host invertebrates and microheterotrophs.