Cultivation and Chemical Profiling of Marine Microorganisms
A special issue of Marine Drugs (ISSN 1660-3397). This special issue belongs to the section "Marine Biotechnology Related to Drug Discovery or Production".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 May 2026 | Viewed by 1
Special Issue Editor
Interests: marine natural products; microbial cultivation; metabolomics; biosynthetic gene clusters; multi-drug resistant pathogens; antibiotics; microbial ecology; bioactive metabolites; secondary metabolism
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Marine microorganisms represent a vast, largely untapped resource of chemically diverse natural products with remarkable biological activities. However, a significant proportion of marine microbial diversity remains uncultivated, and many biosynthetic gene clusters are transcriptionally silent under standard laboratory conditions. The development of innovative cultivation strategies and advanced analytical workflows is therefore crucial to unlocking this hidden chemical potential.
This Special Issue, “Cultivation and Chemical Profiling of Marine Microorganisms”, aims to highlight recent advances in cultivating marine-derived bacteria and fungi, activating cryptic gene clusters, and applying state-of-the-art metabolomic, genomic, and dereplication approaches to discover new natural products. We welcome studies exploring isolation and fermentation methods, chemical profiling through LC–MS/MS and NMR, genome-guided mining, microbial co-culture, and other approaches that reveal novel metabolites and their ecological or pharmacological roles.
Both original research articles and comprehensive reviews are encouraged. Interdisciplinary contributions that integrate chemistry, microbiology, genomics, and bioinformatics are especially welcome.
Dr. Zeinab Khalil
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.
Keywords
- marine microorganisms
- cultivation techniques
- metabolomics
- biosynthetic gene clusters
- natural product discovery
- marine fungi and actinobacteria
- LC–MS/MS and NMR profiling
- genome mining
- co-culture and elicitation
- antibiotic and bioactive compounds
Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue
- Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
- Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
- Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
- External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
- Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.
Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.
