Abstract
Marine microbial natural products (MMNPs) have attracted increasing attention from microbiologists, taxonomists, ecologists, agronomists, chemists and evolutionary biologists during the last few decades. Numerous studies have indicated that diverse marine microbes appear to have the capacity to produce an impressive array of MMNPs exhibiting a wide variety of biological activities such as antimicrobial, anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory and anti-cardiovascular agents. Marine microorganisms represent an underexplored reservoir for the discovery of MMNPs with unique scaffolds and for exploitation in the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries. This review focuses on MMNPs discovery and development over the past decades, including innovative isolation and culture methods, strategies for discovering novel MMNPs via routine screenings, metagenomics, genomics, combinatorial biosynthesis, and synthetic biology. The potential problems and future directions for exploring MMNPs are also discussed.
Highlights
There is a perpetual need for new chemotherapeutants, especially novel antibiotics, to combat new diseases and drug-resistant pathogens that are becoming a significant threat to public health [1]
Recent trends in drug discovery emphasize that marine microorganisms are a potentially productive source of novel secondary metabolites and have great potential to increase the number of marine natural products (NPs) in clinical trials [4]
We review the recent advances in Marine microbial natural products (MMNPs) discovery and development, especially addressing two important topics: (i) isolation and cultivation approaches of marine microorganisms, and (ii) strategies for the discovery and development of MMNPs
Summary
There is a perpetual need for new chemotherapeutants, especially novel antibiotics, to combat new diseases and drug-resistant pathogens that are becoming a significant threat to public health [1]. The discovery and development of new drugs from natural products (NPs) has played a significant role over the last few decades. More than 50,000 microbial natural products (MNPs) have been obtained and have played an important role in drug discovery. The majority of these have been isolated from terrestrial-borne microbes [3]. Recent trends in drug discovery emphasize that marine microorganisms are a potentially productive source of novel secondary metabolites and have great potential to increase the number of marine NPs in clinical trials [4]. 15,000 structurally diverse NPs with an astounding assortment of bioactivities have been identified from marine environments since the 1970s [5] This diversity has attracted researchers to screen MMNPs in drug discovery. We review the recent advances in MMNP discovery and development, especially addressing two important topics: (i) isolation and cultivation approaches of marine microorganisms, and (ii) strategies for the discovery and development of MMNPs
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