From diet to defence: ingestion, sequestration, biotransformation, and therapeutic potential of natural products in nudibranch predator–prey interactions

Abstract

Covering: 1975 up to September 2025

Nudibranchs have attracted significant interest from natural product researchers due to their intriguing predator–prey interactions and numerous bioactive metabolites. The review below, covering 1975 up to September 2025, focuses on the chemoecological interactions reported between predator and prey within the order Nudibranchia. The emphasis is on the ingestion, sequestration and biotransformation of diet-derived compounds, and when known, the role, localisation and bioactivities of the metabolites are described. The review is arranged by class of compounds sequestered or ingested (alkaloids, terpenoids, macrolides, nucleosides and lipids) for each invertebrate prey (sponges, bryozoans and cnidarians).