Dear Colleagues,

In the biotechnological challenge for the discovery of original biomolecules, microorganisms from marine ecosystems are a highly valuable bio-resource. In particular, microbial polysaccharides offer a source of safe, biocompatible, biodegradable and valuable renewable products with specific biological functions emphasized by a significant structural diversity. Acidic and/or sulfated heteropolysaccharides found in various organisms have diverse biological functions in the tissues from which they originate, especially in the cellular physiology. The therapeutic potential of natural polysaccharides such as glycosaminoglycans or GAGs is now well documented. Marine-derived polysaccharides and their oligosaccharidic derivatives have been described for a variety of biological activities such as antithrombotic, antitumor, antiviral, antioxidant, immunomodulatory effects. Marine microorganisms can offer a large variety of GAG-like molecules that could be a good alternative to the use of both mammalian GAGs and other traditional marine polysaccharides and could allow the development of a new generation of therapeutics. Marine microbial polysaccharides or exopolysaccharides (EPS) present original structural features that can be modified to design derivatives with targeted properties and improve their specificity. In this Special Issue of Microorganisms, we invite you to send contributions concerning any aspect related with the search and/or production of bioactive derivatives from marine EPS including microbial marine biodiversity, structures of the produced polysaccharides, some molecular aspects of their biosynthesis, as well as some of their applications driven by their features, optimization of their production, and biological properties with a focus on the discovery of novel fine chemicals and biopharmaceuticals.

Dr. Sylvia Colliec-Jouault
Dr. Agata Zykwinska
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.

• microorganisms
• bacteria
• archaea
• cyanobacteria
• microscopic fungi
• microscopic algae
• marine biodiversity
• marine prokaryotes
• polysaccharides
• exopolysaccharides
• anionic polysaccharides
• sulfated polysaccharides
• marine-derived polysaccharides
• heparin-like entities
• heparinoids
• glycosaminoglycan-like molecules
• glycosaminoglycan-mimetics
• structure
• modification
• depolymerization
• sulfation
• biosynthesis
• biological activity
• glycobiology
• biotechnology