Special Issue "Marine Actinomycetes: A New Source of Natural Products"

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. Jose A. Salas
Department of Functional Biology (Area Microbiology), Faculty of Medicine, University of Oviedo, 33006 Oviedo, Spain
Website: http://www12.uniovi.es/investigacion/jasalas/
E-Mail:
Interests: bioactive natural products; anticancer agents; antimicrobial agents; biosynthesis

Dear Colleagues,

Actinomycetes are filamentous Gram-positive bacteria with a complex life cycle which are widely distributed in terrestrial ecosystems, especially in soil. They are producers of a large number of natural products, many of them with clinical, pharmaceutical or agricultural application. In the last decades, marine actinomycetes are increasingly being isolated from marine environments demonstrating that actinomycetes are ubiquitous in marine sediments, but at lower numbers than in soils. Furthermore, marine actinomycetes have been found in symbiosis with different marine invertebrates, especially sponges. They have attracted great attention since they have developed unique metabolic and physiological capabilities that offer the potential to produce natural products with interesting pharmacological activities and therefore they provide a source of novel natural products with potential application in the near future.

Prof. Dr. Jose A. Salas
Guest Editor

Submission

All papers should be submitted to marinedrugs@mdpi.org with copy to the Editors. To be published continuously until the deadline and papers will be listed together at the special websites. Both, research articles and review articles are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editors for announcment on this website.

Submitted papers should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere. All papers are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors, sample copies and other relevant information for submitting papers are available on the Instructions for Authors page. Marine Drugs is an international peer-reviewed quarterly journal published by Molecular Diversity Preservation International.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a paper Open Access publication fees are 1000 CHF per paper. English correction fees (250 CHF) will be added in certain cases (1250 CHF per paper for those papers that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections.).

• non-ribosomal peptides
• polyketides
• Streptomyces
• Micromonospora
• secondary metabolites
• bioactive compounds

Type of Paper: Review
Title: Marine Actinomycetes and Their Secondary Metabolites
Authors: I. Kajahn, A. Labes, I. Schneemann, D. Schulz, J. Wiese and J. F. Imhoff
Affiliation: Kieler Wirkstoff-Zentrum am IFM-GEOMAR, Am Kiel-Kanal 44, 24106 Kiel, Germany; E-Mails: alabes@ifm-geomar.de (A.L.); jimhoff@ifm-geomar.de (J.F.I.)
Abstract: Actinomycetes are producers of a large number of natural products with different biological activities and are widely distributed in different marine ecosystems. Here, we describe the diversity and biogeographic distribution of marine actinomycetes. The potential of their secondary metabolite production will be reviewed with respect to the ecological interaction of marine actinomycetes within marine microbial communities or with macrobial hosts. Many of these metabolites possess additional biological activities. We will discuss their therapeutic potential and show that marine actinomycetes are a prolific but underexploited source for the discovery of novel natural products.