35 CEMBRANOIDS CONTENT OF SOFT CORAL SARCOPHYTON FROM ACIDIFIED ENVIRONMENT AT VOLCANO ISLAND, INDONESIA Hedi Indra Januar 1,2* , Neviaty Putri Zamani 2, , Dedi Soedharma 2, and Ekowati Chasanah 1 1 Research Center for Marine and Fisheries Product Processing and Biotechnology, Jalan KS. Tubun Petamburan VI, Slipi, Central Jakarta 10260, Indonesia 2 Department of Marine Science, Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Science, Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia, Jalan Raya Dramaga Kampus IPB, Bogor 16680, Indonesia Abstract Cembranoid content in soft coral is known as a chemotype that relate with genotype and environment. This research aimed to characterize the cembranoid Sarcophyton soft coral from the reef that acidified by CO 2 volcanic vents (pH T 7.8) at Volcano Islands waters, Banda-Neira (Indonesia), as a means of predicting the future impact of ocean acidification to the genetic diversity of Sarcophyton soft coral. 30 random colonies were taken, combined, and extracted with ethanol. Cembranoid isolation and identification had been done by high performance liquid chromatography and spectroscopic techniques. Results of the study found sarcophytol derivatives (sarcophytol A, 11,12-epoxy sarcophytol A, sarcophytol B, and sarcophytol M) as the only chemotype in the sample. This may suggest low genetic diversity in the observed Sarcophyton sample. Therefore, it may suggest that even soft coral is known to be resilient to future acidification pressures, the genetic diversity or the production of diverse cytotoxic metabolite may be hampered due to ocean acidification in future climate change adaptation. Keywords: cembranoid; chemotype; ocean acidification; soft coral; Sarcophyton Article history: Received: 24 January 2017; Revised: 5 March 2017; Accepted: 2 April 2017 Squalen Bull. of Mar. and Fish. Postharvest and Biotech. 12 (1) 2017, 35-40 www.bbp4b.litbang.kkp.go.id/squalen-bulletin Squalen Bulletin of Marine and Fisheries Postharvest and Biotechnology ISSN: 2089-5690 e-ISSN: 2406-9272 *Corresponding author. E-mail: idjanuar@gmail.com Copyright © 2017, Squalen BMFPB. Accreditation Number: 631/AU2/P2MI-LIPI/03/2015. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15578/squalen.v12i1.276. 1. Introduction Soft corals are reef organisms that expected to survive in the increasing ocean acidification pressure on the future climate change. Observation into coral community structure at natural acidified environment at CO 2 volcanic vents in Iwotorishima Island waters (Japan) detected an increase in the cover of soft coral Sarcophyton (Inoue, Kayanne, Yamamoto, & Kurihara, 2013). The increasing of soft coral cover was also shown in pH 8 waters located close to volcanic CO 2 at Volcano Island (Maluku), Mahengetang Island (North Sulawesi), and seashore of Northern Minahasa (Januar, Zamani, Soedharma, & Chasanah, 2016a; 2017a). Soft corals are known to be able to mitigate the effects of acidic environment because the protection of external soft bodies to their endoskeleton (Gabay, Benayahu & Fine, 2013; Gabay, Fine, & Barkay, 2014). Moreover, the competitiveness in living space competition is due to their ability to produce the allelochemical cembranoid compounds. Cembranoid is a compound that generally composed by 20 carbon atoms, with 14 carbon atoms main ring and several functional groups. The combination of functional groups such as hydroxyl, carbonyl, epoxy, and lactone, becomes a side chain that attaches to various carbon atom positions on the main ring (Januar, Zamani, Soedharma, & Chasanah, 2016b). Cembranoid is the main soft coral allelochemical, with cytotoxic biological properties that may serve as a chemical weapon for predator or benthic living space competitors, such as hard coral (Lages, Fleury, Ferreira, & Pereira, 2006). The content of cembranoid is highly dependent upon environmental factors, as the ecological relationship with the number of predators and spatial competitors (Slattery, Starmer, & Paul, 2001). Soft coral that was taken from natural coral reefs was detected to contain diverse cembranoid compounds than cultivated aquariums (Farag et al., 2016). Our previous finding also showed cembranoid was produced in higher concentration at healthier coral reef environment (Januar, Hendrarto,