Diversity of Marine Microorganisms as a Source of Bioactive Natural Products

A special issue of Marine Drugs (ISSN 1660-3397). This special issue belongs to the section "Marine Biotechnology Related to Drug Discovery or Production".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2024) | Viewed by 2973

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Ecosustainable Marine Biotechnology, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Via Ammiraglio Ferdinando Acton 55, 80133 Naples, Italy
Interests: marine natural products; biotechnological applications; marine microorganisms; fishing waste exploitation; bioactivity screening
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Ecosustainable Marine Biotechnology, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Via Ammiraglio Ferdinando Acton 55, 80133 Naples, Italy
Interests: marine natural products; structural elucidation; genome mining; NMR; mass spectrometry; drug discovery; metabolomics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Recently, several research projects have focused on the study of marine microorganisms, exploiting their potential for pharmaceutical, cosmeceutical, and nutraceutical applications. They are adapted to survive in competitive and hostile habitats, producing unique secondary metabolites. Moreover, they are still underexplored for drug discovery and offer the opportunity to obtain a continuous source of bioactive compounds.

Continued progress in omics techniques in combination with the development of new bioinformatic tools to handle big data sets are accelerating the discovery of novel bioactive compounds. Mining genomes and metabolomes, independently or in an integrated manner, provides an opportunity to chart the metabolic diversity of free-living or host-associated marine microorganisms, predict microbial biosynthetic abilities, and unlock novel chemical entities.

This Special Issue aims to collect new and stimulating high-quality papers, including reviews and articles, related to various aspects of marine microbial bioprospecting, including functional screenings, structural identification of molecules, and perspectives and challenges for novel products.

Dr. Daniela Coppola
Dr. Gerardo Della Sala
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Marine Drugs is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • marine microorganisms
  • marine natural products
  • biotechnological application
  • omics techniques
  • structural identification
  • bioactivity
  • genome mining
  • molecular networking
  • mass spectrometry
  • NMR spectroscopy

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

26 pages, 12087 KiB  
Article
OSMAC Method to Assess Impact of Culture Parameters on Metabolomic Diversity and Biological Activity of Marine-Derived Actinobacteria
by Alexandre Le Loarer, Laurent Dufossé, Jérôme Bignon, Michel Frédérich, Allison Ledoux, Mireille Fouillaud and Anne Gauvin-Bialecki
Mar. Drugs 2024, 22(1), 23; https://doi.org/10.3390/md22010023 - 28 Dec 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1427
Abstract
Actinobacteria are known for their production of bioactive specialized metabolites, but they are still under-exploited. This study uses the “One Strain Many Compounds” (OSMAC) method to explore the potential of three preselected marine-derived actinobacteria: Salinispora arenicola (SH-78) and two Micromonospora sp. strains (SH-82 and [...] Read more.
Actinobacteria are known for their production of bioactive specialized metabolites, but they are still under-exploited. This study uses the “One Strain Many Compounds” (OSMAC) method to explore the potential of three preselected marine-derived actinobacteria: Salinispora arenicola (SH-78) and two Micromonospora sp. strains (SH-82 and SH-57). Various parameters, including the duration of the culture and the nature of the growth medium, were modified to assess their impact on the production of specialized metabolites. This approach involved a characterization based on chemical analysis completed with the construction of molecular networks and biological testing to evaluate cytotoxic and antiplasmodial activities. The results indicated that the influence of culture parameters depended on the studied species and also varied in relation with the microbial metabolites targeted. However, common favorable parameters could be observed for all strains such as an increase in the duration of the culture or the use of the A1 medium. For Micromonospora sp. SH-82, the solid A1 medium culture over 21 days favored a greater chemical diversity. A rise in the antiplasmodial activity was observed with this culture duration, with a IC50 twice as low as for the 14-day culture. Micromonospora sp. SH-57 produced more diverse natural products in liquid culture, with approximately 54% of nodes from the molecular network specifically linked to the type of culture support. Enhanced biological activities were also observed with specific sets of parameters. Finally, for Salinispora arenicola SH-78, liquid culture allowed a greater diversity of metabolites, but intensity variations were specifically observed for some metabolites under other conditions. Notably, compounds related to staurosporine were more abundant in solid culture. Consequently, in the range of the chosen parameters, optimal conditions to enhance metabolic diversity and biological activities in these three marine-derived actinobacteria were identified, paving the way for future isolation works. Full article
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12 pages, 3637 KiB  
Article
Kocuria flava, a Bacterial Endophyte of the Marine Macroalga Bryopsis plumosa, Emits 8-Nonenoic Acid Which Inhibits the Aquaculture Pathogen Saprolegnia parasitica
by Ynon Deutsch, Mohamed Samara, Ahmed Nasser, Ilana Berman-Frank and David Ezra
Mar. Drugs 2023, 21(9), 476; https://doi.org/10.3390/md21090476 - 29 Aug 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1154
Abstract
Secondary metabolites—organic compounds that are often bioactive—produced by endophytes, among others, provide a selective advantage by increasing the organism’s survivability. Secondary metabolites mediate the symbiotic relationship between endophytes and their host, potentially providing the host with tolerance to, and protection against biotic and [...] Read more.
Secondary metabolites—organic compounds that are often bioactive—produced by endophytes, among others, provide a selective advantage by increasing the organism’s survivability. Secondary metabolites mediate the symbiotic relationship between endophytes and their host, potentially providing the host with tolerance to, and protection against biotic and abiotic stressors. Secondary metabolites can be secreted as a dissolved substance or emitted as a volatile. In a previous study, we isolated bioactive endophytes from several macroalgae and tested them in vitro for their ability to inhibit major disease-causing pathogens of aquatic animals in the aquaculture industry. One endophyte (isolate Abp5, K. flava) inhibited and killed, in vitro, the pathogen Saprolegnia parasitica, an oomycete that causes saprolegniasis—a disease affecting a wide range of aquatic animals. Here, using analytical chemistry tools, we found that Abp5 produces the volatile organic compound (VOC) 8-nonenoic acid. Once we confirmed the production of this compound by the endophyte, we tested the compound’s ability to treat S. parasitica in in vitro and in vivo bioassays. In the latter, we found that 5 mg/L of the compound improves the survival of larvae challenged with S. parasitica by 54.5%. Our isolation and characterization of the VOC emitted by the endophytic K. flava establish the groundwork for future studies of endophytic biocontrol agents from macroalgae. Use of this compound could enable managing oomycete agricultural pathogens in general, and S. parasitica in particular, a major causal agent in aquaculture diseases. Full article
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