Genome Mining and Discovery of Marine Bioactive Secondary Metabolites

Dear Colleagues,

The marine environment is an unparalleled source of chemical innovation, producing a spectacular diversity of bioactive secondary metabolites with significant pharmaceutical, biotechnological, and ecological importance. From potent anticancer agents to novel antibiotics, these marine-derived compounds offer promising solutions to pressing global health challenges. However, the traditional discovery pipeline has reached a bottleneck, with the frequent re-isolation of known compounds failing to tap into the true biosynthetic potential of marine life.

The advent of genome mining has dramatically shifted this paradigm. By directly interrogating the genetic blueprint of marine microorganisms and the vast, silent biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) within them, we can now proactively guide the discovery of novel bioactive compounds. These compounds, especially when integrated with heterologous expression, metabolic engineering, and multi-omics technologies, can  unlock a new wave of marine bioactive secondary metabolites that were previously beyond our reach.

This Special Issue, ‘Genome Mining and Discovery of Marine Bioactive Secondary Metabolites’, aims to highlight the pivotal role that genomic strategies play in revitalizing marine natural product discovery. We seek to showcase research that successfully bridges the gap between genetic prediction and the isolation of novel, functionally characterized compounds. We welcome contributions that explore the entire journey of these compounds, from BGCs to bioactive molecules. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Novel marine bioactive compounds.
• Linking Biosynthetic Gene Clusters (BGCs) to new chemical structures.
• Activation of silent BGCs to uncover hidden metabolic profiles.
• Heterologous expression as a platform for producing and engineering marine natural products.
• Integrated metabolomics and genomics to accelerate the discovery of novel bioactives.
• Bioactive metabolites from underexplored marine sources.
• Characterization of bioactivities: Antimicrobial, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective properties of newly discovered metabolites.
• Biosynthetic pathway elucidation for unique marine natural products.
• Ecological insights into the role of bioactive secondary metabolites in the marine environment.

We particularly welcome contributions on the identification and characterization of new marine bioactive secondary metabolites, and we invite the submission of original research articles and reviews that align with the above themes.

Dr. Jianying Han
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 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. 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.