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Marine Drugs
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Marine Bioactive Compound Discovery Through OSMAC Approach—2nd Edition
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Marine Bioactive Compound Discovery Through OSMAC Approach—2nd Edition

A special issue of Marine Drugs (ISSN 1660-3397). This special issue belongs to the section "Marine Pharmacology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 6274

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Xiaoling Lu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Naval Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China
Interests: marine microorganisms; secondary metabolites; anticancer; action mechanism; biosynthetic pathway
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Marine microorganisms represent a treasure trove of structurally diverse natural products with significant bioactivities. The OSMAC (One Strain Many Compounds) strategy has emerged as a revolutionary tool in the field of natural product discovery due to its powerful ability to efficiently mine microbial secondary metabolites.

This Special Issue aims to bring together global research efforts in order to showcase the latest breakthroughs, innovative methodologies, and profound insights regarding the application of the OSMAC strategy in discovering novel and highly bioactive natural products. We focus on how the ingenious manipulation of cultivation conditions—such as medium composition, physical parameters, co-cultivation, and the addition of small molecule elicitors—can activate silent biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) in microorganisms, thereby significantly expanding the accessible chemical space.

We sincerely invite experts and scholars from the fields of natural products chemistry, microbiology, synthetic biology, drug discovery, bioinformatics, fermentation engineering, and related interdisciplinary areas to contribute original research articles and high-quality reviews. By compiling cutting-edge achievements in this field, this Special Issue seeks to deepen the understanding of microbial chemical diversity; propel theoretical innovation and technological advancement of the OSMAC strategy; accelerate the discovery process of novel natural products with important bioactivities; and provide a new fountainhead of innovation for drug research and development, agriculture, and industrial biotechnology.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Xiaoling Lu
Guest Editor

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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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. Marine Drugs 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 2900 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.

Keywords

  • marine microorganisms
  • secondary metabolites
  • OSMAC
  • epigenetic
  • cryptic
  • bioactivity

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (3 papers)

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17 pages, 2745 KB  
Article
Phaseolorin J Alleviates Cellular Inflammation and Oxidative Stress by Inhibiting NLRP3 Inflammasome Expression via the Nrf2/HO-1 Pathway
by Yuanjie Chen, Ting Feng, Xiaojing Li, Jing Xu and Juren Cen
Mar. Drugs 2026, 24(4), 130; https://doi.org/10.3390/md24040130 - 31 Mar 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 624
Abstract
Phaseolorin J (TT-55), a chromone compound isolated and purified from the fermentation products of Phomopsis asparagi DHS-48, is an endophytic fungus obtained from mangrove forests. Preliminary experimental studies have revealed its potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, though its mechanism of action remains unclear. [...] Read more.
Phaseolorin J (TT-55), a chromone compound isolated and purified from the fermentation products of Phomopsis asparagi DHS-48, is an endophytic fungus obtained from mangrove forests. Preliminary experimental studies have revealed its potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities, though its mechanism of action remains unclear. In this study, we aimed to investigate the molecular mechanisms underlying the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of TT-55, following initial evidence of its potency, by employing an LPS-induced RAW264.7 macrophage model in vitro. The results revealed that in the LPS-induced inflammatory model of RAW264.7 cells, the TT-55 dose dependently inhibited the expression of LPS-induced inflammatory cytokines (TNF-α, IL-18, IL-1β, IL-6) and the production of oxidative stress markers (reactive oxygen species, SOD, MDA). Following combined treatment with the Nrf2 pathway inhibitor ML385 and TT-55, the inhibitory effects of TT-55 on inflammatory cytokines and oxidative stress markers were reversed by ML385. Meanwhile, ML385 also attenuated the ability of TT-55 to suppress LPS-induced upregulation of NLRP3 inflammasome-related genes. In conclusion, TT-55 may exert its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects by activating the Nrf2/HO-1 signaling pathway and suppressing the upregulation of NLRP3 inflammasome-related genes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Bioactive Compound Discovery Through OSMAC Approach—2nd Edition)
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12 pages, 982 KB  
Article
Chemical Diversity and Antitumor Metabolites from Soft Coral-Derived Fungus Aspergillus sclerotiorum SCSIO 41031 via OSMAC Strategy
by Juan Gao, Jieyi Long, Xiaoyan Pang, Xuefeng Zhou, Yonghong Liu and Bin Yang
Mar. Drugs 2026, 24(4), 128; https://doi.org/10.3390/md24040128 - 31 Mar 2026
Viewed by 561
Abstract
Microorganisms provide critical lead compounds for drug development, yet most biosynthetic gene clusters remain silent under standard culture conditions. The OSMAC strategy activates these clusters by adjusting cultivation parameters, thereby enabling the discovery of novel compounds from a single strain. Here, we applied [...] Read more.
Microorganisms provide critical lead compounds for drug development, yet most biosynthetic gene clusters remain silent under standard culture conditions. The OSMAC strategy activates these clusters by adjusting cultivation parameters, thereby enabling the discovery of novel compounds from a single strain. Here, we applied OSMAC to explore the metabolic potential of the soft coral-derived fungus Aspergillus sclerotiorum SCSIO 41031. Three different culture media were employed for the large-scale fermentation process. After isolation by chromatography, the compounds were structurally characterized using NMR, MS, and X-ray single-crystal diffraction, and their absolute configurations were determined by electronic circular dichroism (ECD) calculations. In total, three new compounds, named 6,6′-diacetyl-1,1′-dihydroxy-3,3′-dimethoxydibenzyl ether (1), esterwortmannolol (17) and pestalpolyol I (20), along with 19 known compounds (2–16, 18–19 and 21–22) were obtained. This study validates the efficacy of the OSMAC strategy and underscores that A. sclerotiorum SCSIO 41031 serves as a valuable resource for producing structurally diverse natural products with potent biological activities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Bioactive Compound Discovery Through OSMAC Approach—2nd Edition)
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23 pages, 2053 KB  
Article
Integrated Omics-Based Discovery of Bioactive Halogenated Metabolites from the Deep-Sea Streptomyces sp. B188M101
by Emmanuel Tope Oluwabusola, Stephen A. Jackson, Cristina Brunati, Stefanie Gackstatter, Hannah Vedder, Marianna Iorio, Gargee Chawande, Lekha Menon Margassery, Giang-Son Nguyen, David J. Clarke, Rainer Ebel, Marcel Jaspars and Alan D. W. Dobson
Mar. Drugs 2025, 23(9), 362; https://doi.org/10.3390/md23090362 - 19 Sep 2025
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 4471
Abstract
Using the one-strain-many-compounds (OSMAC) culturing approach, metabolomic studies, and bioassay-guided purification, we have isolated and characterised three new chlorinated natural products, agelolines B-D (1–3), together with two known compounds, ageloline A (4) and gausemycin A (5 [...] Read more.
Using the one-strain-many-compounds (OSMAC) culturing approach, metabolomic studies, and bioassay-guided purification, we have isolated and characterised three new chlorinated natural products, agelolines B-D (1–3), together with two known compounds, ageloline A (4) and gausemycin A (5), which have been identified by high-resolution mass spectrometry and 1D and 2D NMR analyses. The preliminary evaluation of three small-scale extracts (M400, R358 and SGG) against the fish pathogen, Aeromonas salmonicida subsp. achromogenes KELDUR265-87, showed that the R358 extract displayed significant activity. Furthermore, the natural products (1–5) were evaluated against the fish pathogen Aeromonas salmonicida and human pathogens (Stenotrophomonas maltophilia L2125, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC6538P, and S. pneumoniae L44) using a serial dilution assay. Compound 3 displayed activity against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC6538P, S. maltophilia L2125, and S. pneumoniae L44 with MIC values of 6, 32, and 64 µg/mL, respectively. Interestingly, only gausemycin A (5) exhibited considerable inhibition against A. salmonicida with an MIC value of 32 µg/mL, and the activity increased by two-fold when supplemented with 0.45 mM calcium salt, while 2 and 4 showed moderate inhibition against S. maltophilia L2125. The biosynthetic pathways of compounds 1–4 were proposed. This is the first report of specific inhibition of A. salmonicida by 5. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Marine Bioactive Compound Discovery Through OSMAC Approach—2nd Edition)
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