Marine Microbial Symbionts: Underexplored Microbiome and Novel Metabolites

A special issue of Bioengineering (ISSN 2306-5354). This special issue belongs to the section "Biochemical Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2022) | Viewed by 6178

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China
Interests: sponge/coral-microbes symbioses; marine microbiome; marine natural products
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Marine animals and plants such as sponges, sea squirts, corals, worms and algae host diverse and abundant symbiotic microorganisms. However, the exploitation of these underexplored marine microorganisms represents a huge challenge because the majority of the microbial symbionts are uncultured. Marine microbial symbionts are possibly the true producers or take part in the biosynthesis of some bioactive marine natural products isolated from the marine holobionts. Thus, marine symbiotic microorganisms provide a new dimension in the production of pharmaceutically important compounds.

This Special Issue on “Marine microbial symbionts: underexplored microbiome and novel metabolites” seeks high-quality works focusing on the latest novel achievements. Topics include, but are not limited to:

  • New techniques to improve the culturability of marine microbial symbionts;
  • The exploration of uncultured microorganisms in marine holobionts by heterologous expression;
  • Novel natural products and enzymes produced by marine animal\plant symbiotic microorganisms;
  • Omics strategy to reveal the molecular mechanisms for the association of microbes-host symbiosis and the interaction between microbes and their host.

Prof. Dr. Zhi-Yong Li
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • uncultured microbes
  • microbial metabolites
  • heterologous expression
  • host-microbes association
  • omics strategy
  • molecular mechanisms

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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12 pages, 3431 KiB  
Article
Bioactive Aspergteroids G–J from Soft-Coral-Associated Symbiotic and Epiphytic Fungus Aspergillus terreus EGF7-0-1
by Hao Fan, Li Wang, Ze-Kun Zhang, Ping-Ping Wu, Yu-Pei He, Le-Yi Chen, Qian Wang and Cui-Xian Zhang
Bioengineering 2023, 10(7), 805; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering10070805 - 5 Jul 2023
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Abstract
Two new disubstituted maleimides, aspergteroids G–H (12), and two trisubstituted butenolides aspergteroids I–J (34), along with four known analogs, were isolated and structurally identified from the fermentation extract of soft-coral-associated symbiotic and epiphytic fungus Aspergillus [...] Read more.
Two new disubstituted maleimides, aspergteroids G–H (12), and two trisubstituted butenolides aspergteroids I–J (34), along with four known analogs, were isolated and structurally identified from the fermentation extract of soft-coral-associated symbiotic and epiphytic fungus Aspergillus terreus EGF7-0-1. The structures of the new compounds were established mainly via spectroscopic data analyses, and their absolute configurations were determined via X-ray diffraction analysis and comparison of the calculated and experimental electronic circular dichroism. Myocardial protection assays showed that compounds 1, 2, 5, and 6 possess protective effects against tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP)-induced H9c2 (rat myocardial cells) apoptosis at low concentrations. Based on the analyses of the protein–protein interaction (PPI) network and Western blotting, compound 1 may inhibit the apoptosis and inflammatory response of cardiomyocytes after TBHP induction and improve the antioxidant capacity of cardiomyocytes. We speculate that the anti-inflammatory response of compound 1 is suppressed by the glycogen synthase kinase-3 beta (GSK-3β), downregulated by the NOD-like receptor thermal protein domain associated protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome activation, and suppressed by the expression of cysteinyl aspartate specific proteinase-3 (caspase-3) and B-cell lymphoma-2 associated X protein (Bax). Full article
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Review

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21 pages, 4788 KiB  
Review
Anti-Tumor Secondary Metabolites Originating from Fungi in the South China Sea’s Mangrove Ecosystem
by Yuyou Luo, Xiongming Luo, Tong Zhang, Siyuan Li, Shuping Liu, Yuxin Ma, Zongming Wang, Xiaobao Jin, Jing Liu and Xin Wang
Bioengineering 2022, 9(12), 776; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering9120776 - 6 Dec 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1838
Abstract
A mangrove is a unique ecosystem with abundant resources, in which fungi are an indispensable microbial part. Numerous mangrove fungi-derived secondary metabolites are considerable sources of novel bioactive substances, such as polyketides, terpenoids, alkaloids, peptides, etc., which arouse people’s interest in the search [...] Read more.
A mangrove is a unique ecosystem with abundant resources, in which fungi are an indispensable microbial part. Numerous mangrove fungi-derived secondary metabolites are considerable sources of novel bioactive substances, such as polyketides, terpenoids, alkaloids, peptides, etc., which arouse people’s interest in the search for potential natural anti-tumor drugs. This review includes a total of 44 research publications that described 110 secondary metabolites that were all shown to be anti-tumor from 39 mangrove fungal strains belonging to 18 genera that were acquired from the South China Sea between 2016 and 2022. To identify more potential medications for clinical tumor therapy, their sources, unique structures, and cytotoxicity qualities were compiled. This review could serve as a crucial resource for the research status of mangrove fungal-derived natural products deserving of further development. Full article
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19 pages, 1446 KiB  
Review
The Exploration of Microbial Natural Products and Metabolic Interaction Guided by Mass Spectrometry Imaging
by Hao Li and Zhiyong Li
Bioengineering 2022, 9(11), 707; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering9110707 - 18 Nov 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2625
Abstract
As an impressive mass spectrometry technology, mass spectrometric imaging (MSI) can provide mass spectra data and spatial distribution of analytes simultaneously. MSI has been widely used in diverse fields such as clinical diagnosis, the pharmaceutical industry and environmental study due to its accuracy, [...] Read more.
As an impressive mass spectrometry technology, mass spectrometric imaging (MSI) can provide mass spectra data and spatial distribution of analytes simultaneously. MSI has been widely used in diverse fields such as clinical diagnosis, the pharmaceutical industry and environmental study due to its accuracy, high resolution and developing reproducibility. Natural products (NPs) have been a critical source of leading drugs; almost half of marketed drugs are derived from NPs or their derivatives. The continuous search for bioactive NPs from microorganisms or microbiomes has always been attractive. MSI allows us to analyze and characterize NPs directly in monocultured microorganisms or a microbial community. In this review, we briefly introduce current mainstream ionization technologies for microbial samples and the key issue of sample preparation, and then summarize some applications of MSI in the exploration of microbial NPs and metabolic interaction, especially NPs from marine microbes. Additionally, remaining challenges and future prospects are discussed. Full article
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