Chapter 8 - Accessing Marine Microbial Diversity for Drug Discovery

Abstract

Marine bacteria are beginning to occupy a central role in the discovery of new bioactive molecules. The diversity of marine microbial habitats, each with its unique environmental traits and characteristic dominance of certain bacterial Phyla, are described herein. Sampling strategies for deep-sea marine sediments, as well as isolation methods are described. Bacterial culturing methods are presented based on our own experience working with marine bacteria. We provide a short review of significant metabolites isolated, and present three case studies of salinosporamide A, currently in clinical trials for the treatment of cancer, as well as the abyssomicins and thiocoralines, which show significant promise for clinical development. Given the brief format of this chapter, it is simply not feasible to do a comprehensive review. Rather, interesting highlights of the status of marine microbial drug discovery, many examples from our own work, have been selected to demonstrate the growing sophistication of this field of inquiry. Apologies are thus due to the many authors whose important and insightful contributions were not cited.