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Marine Drugs
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Marine Molecules Involved in Symbiosis as Potential New Natural Drugs
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Marine Molecules Involved in Symbiosis as Potential New Natural Drugs

A special issue of Marine Drugs (ISSN 1660-3397). This special issue belongs to the section "Marine Chemoecology for Drug Discovery".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2022) | Viewed by 14953

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Maria Costantini

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Guest Editor
Department of Marine Biotechnology, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Villa Comunale, 80121 Napoli, Italy
Interests: genomic/transcriptomic; marine biotechnology; metabolites in microalgae; nutraceuticals in fish; acquaculture
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Nadia Ruocco

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Guest Editor
Department of Marine Biotechnology, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Villa Comunale, 80121 Napoli, Italy
Interests: investigating the anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and anti-aging properties of marine sponge derived extracts through bioassay-guided fractionation and molecular approaches
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Chemical defense strategies are widespread in the marine environment. Interestingly, the toxic molecules that allow these important events are often shared among taxonomically distant organisms, suggesting a possible origin from species-specific symbiotic relationships. The source of these metabolites is almost exclusively represented by microbial symbionts but in some cases may arise as diet-derived compounds. Symbiosis occurs in numerous marine organisms, such as algae, sponges, ascidians, echinoderms, mollusks, cnidaria, and so on. A fascinating and extremely rare example of marine endosymbiosis is a tripartite interaction, where bacterial-derived molecules protect marine algae from grazers, but they are also indirectly accumulated by predatory mollusks for their own defense. Indeed, among marine invertebrates, sponges are the most studied taxa for their ability to host very complex microbial communities and produce a huge repertoire of defensive molecules. In fact, sponge nutrition, survival, and chemical defenses are closely related to symbiotic microorganisms.

Investigations on these marine natural products are steadily increasing, since they have displayed several beneficial properties, such as anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-aging properties. This Special Issue will offer to researchers a channel to contribute with scientific papers on symbiosis-related compounds with interesting bioactivities and potential applications in pharmacological, cosmeceutical, and nutraceutical fields.

Dr. Maria Costantini
Dr. Nadia Ruocco
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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

  • chemical defense
  • drugs
  • marine biotechnology
  • marine organisms
  • secondary metabolites
  • symbiosis

Related Special Issues

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Review

39 pages, 2583 KiB  
Review
Bacteria Associated with Benthic Invertebrates from Extreme Marine Environments: Promising but Underexplored Sources of Biotechnologically Relevant Molecules
by Angelina Lo Giudice and Carmen Rizzo
Mar. Drugs 2022, 20(10), 617; https://doi.org/10.3390/md20100617 - 29 Sep 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2740
Abstract
Microbe–invertebrate associations, commonly occurring in nature, play a fundamental role in the life of symbionts, even in hostile habitats, assuming a key importance for both ecological and evolutionary studies and relevance in biotechnology. Extreme environments have emerged as a new frontier in natural [...] Read more.
Microbe–invertebrate associations, commonly occurring in nature, play a fundamental role in the life of symbionts, even in hostile habitats, assuming a key importance for both ecological and evolutionary studies and relevance in biotechnology. Extreme environments have emerged as a new frontier in natural product chemistry in the search for novel chemotypes of microbial origin with significant biological activities. However, to date, the main focus has been microbes from sediment and seawater, whereas those associated with biota have received significantly less attention. This review has been therefore conceived to summarize the main information on invertebrate–bacteria associations that are established in extreme marine environments. After a brief overview of currently known extreme marine environments and their main characteristics, a report on the associations between extremophilic microorganisms and macrobenthic organisms in such hostile habitats is provided. The second part of the review deals with biotechnologically relevant bioactive molecules involved in establishing and maintaining symbiotic associations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Molecules Involved in Symbiosis as Potential New Natural Drugs)
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19 pages, 882 KiB  
Review
Sponges and Their Symbionts as a Source of Valuable Compounds in Cosmeceutical Field
by Roberta Esposito, Nadia Ruocco, Thomas Viel, Serena Federico, Valerio Zupo and Maria Costantini
Mar. Drugs 2021, 19(8), 444; https://doi.org/10.3390/md19080444 - 02 Aug 2021
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 4018
Abstract
In the last decades, the marine environment was discovered as a huge reservoir of novel bioactive compounds, useful for medicinal treatments improving human health and well-being. Among several marine organisms exhibiting biotechnological potential, sponges were highlighted as one of the most interesting phyla [...] Read more.
In the last decades, the marine environment was discovered as a huge reservoir of novel bioactive compounds, useful for medicinal treatments improving human health and well-being. Among several marine organisms exhibiting biotechnological potential, sponges were highlighted as one of the most interesting phyla according to a wide literature describing new molecules every year. Not surprisingly, the first marine drugs approved for medical purposes were isolated from a marine sponge and are now used as anti-cancer and anti-viral agents. In most cases, experimental evidence reported that very often associated and/or symbiotic communities produced these bioactive compounds for a mutual benefit. Nowadays, beauty treatments are formulated taking advantage of the beneficial properties exerted by marine novel compounds. In fact, several biological activities suitable for cosmetic treatments were recorded, such as anti-oxidant, anti-aging, skin whitening, and emulsifying activities, among others. Here, we collected and discussed several scientific contributions reporting the cosmeceutical potential of marine sponge symbionts, which were exclusively represented by fungi and bacteria. Bioactive compounds specifically indicated as products of the sponge metabolism were also included. However, the origin of sponge metabolites is dubious, and the role of the associated biota cannot be excluded, considering that the isolation of symbionts represents a hard challenge due to their uncultivable features. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Molecules Involved in Symbiosis as Potential New Natural Drugs)
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29 pages, 2460 KiB  
Review
Symbioses of Cyanobacteria in Marine Environments: Ecological Insights and Biotechnological Perspectives
by Mirko Mutalipassi, Gennaro Riccio, Valerio Mazzella, Christian Galasso, Emanuele Somma, Antonia Chiarore, Donatella de Pascale and Valerio Zupo
Mar. Drugs 2021, 19(4), 227; https://doi.org/10.3390/md19040227 - 16 Apr 2021
Cited by 23 | Viewed by 7257
Abstract
Cyanobacteria are a diversified phylum of nitrogen-fixing, photo-oxygenic bacteria able to colonize a wide array of environments. In addition to their fundamental role as diazotrophs, they produce a plethora of bioactive molecules, often as secondary metabolites, exhibiting various biological and ecological functions to [...] Read more.
Cyanobacteria are a diversified phylum of nitrogen-fixing, photo-oxygenic bacteria able to colonize a wide array of environments. In addition to their fundamental role as diazotrophs, they produce a plethora of bioactive molecules, often as secondary metabolites, exhibiting various biological and ecological functions to be further investigated. Among all the identified species, cyanobacteria are capable to embrace symbiotic relationships in marine environments with organisms such as protozoans, macroalgae, seagrasses, and sponges, up to ascidians and other invertebrates. These symbioses have been demonstrated to dramatically change the cyanobacteria physiology, inducing the production of usually unexpressed bioactive molecules. Indeed, metabolic changes in cyanobacteria engaged in a symbiotic relationship are triggered by an exchange of infochemicals and activate silenced pathways. Drug discovery studies demonstrated that those molecules have interesting biotechnological perspectives. In this review, we explore the cyanobacterial symbioses in marine environments, considering them not only as diazotrophs but taking into consideration exchanges of infochemicals as well and emphasizing both the chemical ecology of relationship and the candidate biotechnological value for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Molecules Involved in Symbiosis as Potential New Natural Drugs)
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