Dear Colleagues,

The microbial transformation of organic compounds, i.e., the microbially catalyzed conversion of organic molecules, is a structural modification of the compounds by enzyme systems of microorganisms. It is a powerful tool to obtain organic molecules that are difficult to obtain by chemical means, which allows us to obtain compounds that are more active, and/or less toxic as compared with their parent molecules. As a rule, biotransformation is associated with the functionalization of the molecule, for example, by introducing oxygen-containing groups, while the basic structure of the molecule remains unchanged. This may result in the increase in the molecule’s polarity, solubility, affect the translocation throughout the membrane and influence the biological effects. Unlike chemical methods, microbial transformations can be carried out in aqueous media under mild conditions, which is especially important when working with unstable molecules subject to destruction in strongly alkaline or strongly acidic media, at high temperatures and pressure, under the influence of aggressive chemical agents that can be used in organic synthesis. Bioconversions can be carried out at molecule positions that cannot be achieved with chemical agents in a more regio- and stereospecific manner and usually do not require protection or deprotection of the functional groups. Metabolic pathways may be designed to increase biotransformation selectivity and suppress undesirable reactions. In this Special Issue of Microorganisms, we call for articles, reviews, short communications, or comments on different aspects of the microbial transformation of organic compounds, including (but not limited to) the following:

• Antibiotics,
• Antifungal agents,
• Steroids,
• Other medicines,
• Xenobiotics and others.

Manuscripts related to the discovery and engineering of microorganisms capable of performing different reactions of oxyfunctionalization of inactive carbons, rare redox reactions, cascade reactions including (chemo)enzymatic cascades, detoxification of persistent organic pollutants through microbial transformation, creation and genetic modification of whole cell biocatalysts, application of immobilized cells, as well as the production of new and established value-added molecules via microbial synthesis or biotransformation are welcome.

Dr. Marina Donova
Dr. Victoria V. Fokina
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. Microorganisms 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 2700 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.

• microbial transformation
• bioconversion
• biocatalysis
• microbial technology
• metabolic engineering
• protein engineering
• bioactive compounds
• bacteria
• fungi