Biomedicines from Marine Symbioses
A special issue of Marine Drugs (ISSN 1660-3397).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2011) | Viewed by 24132
Special Issue Editor
Interests: proteomics; animal venom
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Marine micro- and macro-organisms are a rich source of chemically diverse metabolites. In particular, secondary metabolites of marine invertebrates show exceptional promise as potential pharmaceuticals in diverse therapeutic areas in treating cancer, pain, inflammation and viral infections. Most marine invertebrates harbour microorganisms that include bacteria, cyanobacteria, fungi and eukaryotic algae where they reside as extra- and intra-cellular symbionts. Numerous products isolated from marine invertebrates are structurally homologous to known metabolites of strict microbial origin, suggesting that commensal microbiota contribute substantially to the biosynthesis of host metabolites and to the chemical ecology of these organisms. Advances in marine biology and molecular sciences have afforded greater access to these compounds than ever before. Herein, we invite submission of manuscripts describing natural product discovery from symbiotic or commensal associations between marine plants, invertebrates and microbial organisms. An economic and sustainable global market supply due to difficulty of synthesis is cited as the main obstacle for exploitation of these otherwise exciting marine bioactive compounds. Additionally, studies addressing issues of sustainable supply are also strongly encouraged.
Dr. Paul Long
Guest Editor
Keywords
- marine drugs
- marine natural products
- marine symbiosis
- microbial metagenomics
- chemical ecology
- bioinformatics
- heterologous expression
- total synthesis; aquaculture