Research review paper Molecular biodiversity and recent analytical developments: A marriage of convenience Strahil Berkov a,b, ⁎, Blaga Mutafova c , Philippe Christen d a Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 23 Acad. G. Bonchev str., Sofia 1113, Bulgaria b AgroBioInstitute, Agricultural Academy, 8 Dragan Tsankov str., Sofia 1164, Bulgaria c The Stephan Angeloff Institute of Microbiology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 26 G. Bonchev str., Sofia 1113, Bulgaria d School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Geneva–University of Lausanne, Quai Ernest-Ansermet 30, CH-1211 Genève 4, Switzerland abstract article info Article history: Received 3 January 2014 Received in revised form 15 April 2014 Accepted 16 April 2014 Available online xxxx Keywords: Analytical platforms Bioactivity Biodiversity Lead discovery Molecular diversity Technological progress Nature has developed an outstanding bio- and molecular diversity as a result of billion years of evolution resulting in a tremendous number of secondary metabolites. Among them a small part has been so far explored for discovery of lead compounds. The lead discovery from natural sources is a technological challenge for the pharmaceutical industry. The bio- and molecular diversity in plants, animals and microorganisms, as sources for new leads, and the remarkable recent developments in NMR, mass spectrometry coupled with advanced sep- aration techniques (LC and GC), high throughput screening, and structure-based virtual screening are discussed in this article. © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Biodiversity and molecular biodiversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Molecular biodiversity of plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Molecular diversity of microorganisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Molecular diversity of animals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Technological advances in lead discovery from Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Analytical platforms for dereplication and structure determination of bioactive molecules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Mass spectrometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 Introduction The Ebers Papyrus, dated back to 2900 BC, is one of the earliest re- cords on natural products describing utilization of plants as remedies. Later, many prescriptions and plant-based drugs have been documented in the Chinese Materia Medica (1100 BC). Theophrastus (~300 BC), considered as the father of botany and the Greek physician Dioscorides (100 AD), among many others reported on the properties of plants as medicines (Dias et al., 2012). Eighty percent of all medicines were obtained from plants till the early 1900s (McChesney et al., 2007). In the 20th century, natural products have continued to be an important source of leads, however, many synthetic and semi-synthetic drugs have been introduced on the pharmaceutical market. Medicines containing natural compounds such as morphine, atropine, cocaine, qui- nine, and digoxin have been used for centuries. Natural products, such as the anti-malarial drug artemisinin, the anti-cancer agents taxol, and Biotechnology Advances xxx (2014) xxx–xxx ⁎ Corresponding author at: Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research, 23 Acad. G. Bonchev str., Sofia 1113, Bulgaria. Tel.: +359 897063311. E-mail address: berkov_str@yahoo.com (S. Berkov). JBA-06808; No of Pages 9 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biotechadv.2014.04.005 0734-9750/© 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Biotechnology Advances journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biotechadv Please cite this article as: Berkov S, et al, Molecular biodiversity and recent analytical developments: A marriage of convenience, Biotechnol Adv (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biotechadv.2014.04.005