Secondary Metabolism of Microorganisms 3.0

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is the continuation of our previous Special Issues, "Secondary Metabolism of Microorganisms" and “Secondary Metabolism of Microorganisms 2.0”.

Microbial secondary metabolism represents a very interesting research field. On the one hand, secondary metabolism is considered nonessential for microbial growth and development, but it results in the biosynthesis of an impressive array of compounds relevant for: (i) human and animal health (e.g., antibiotics, receptor antagonists and agonists, and immunosuppressants), (ii) food and feed (e.g., pigments), (iii) agriculture (e.g., pheromones and plant protectants), and (iv) farming (e.g., toxins). This industrially relevant group of compounds is produced by certain taxonomic clades of organisms such as bacteria, mainly Actinobacteria, and fungi. Since metabolite formation is usually repressed during the logarithmic phase of growth and boosted along the stationary growth phase, a regulatory fine-tuning of nutrients (e.g., phosphate and nitrogen), precursors, and energy molecules is needed. The understanding of this strictly controlled process opens the door to synthetic biology to redirect metabolic pathways, avoiding nutrient sinks and by-product generation.

On the other hand, secondary metabolism plays a significant ecological role in the communication among different microorganisms in nature. At present, mixed fermentation or co-cultivation is a trending method to study, understand, and harness microbial competition and communication when the appropriate physiological conditions are provided.

This Special Issue of Microorganisms invites researchers to contribute research articles, reviews, and opinions addressing the latest knowledge on the secondary metabolism of microorganisms, including molecular biology, omics, synthetic biology, industrial microbiology, genome editing, metabolite production, downstream processing, gene control and regulation, etc., both in fundamental research and its applications. This Special Issue is divided into three blocks: i) microbial secondary metabolites; ii) the regulation of secondary metabolism; and iii) communication between microbial communities. Manuscripts covering these areas of knowledge, and others related to microbial secondary metabolism, are of interest for this Special Issue.

Dr. Carlos García-Estrada
Dr. Carlos Barreiro
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.

• Secondary Metabolism of Microorganisms in Microorganisms (23 articles)