Microbial Biotechnology Products and Biocatalysis Processes for a Sustainable Bioeconomy

Dear Colleagues,

This Topic on “Microbial Biotechnology Products and Biocatalysis Processes for a Sustainable Bioeconomy” aims to promote the potential of microbial biotechnology products for a sustainable bioeconomy. The discovery of new products has been addressed by multidisciplinary teams, for example, combining knowledge on microbiology, biotechnology, and chemistry. Therefore, this Topic should focus on screenings and characterization of new bio-based products, new microbial producers, and optimization of biotechnological processes by reducing production waste and cost, leading to more sustainable processes and enhancing the circular economy. On the other hand, we are also interested to describe the actual biocatalysts in more detail. In recent years, many new biocatalysts have been described and studied mostly from a biocatalytic perspective. Since more and more (meta)genome data become available, even more of those studies will appear and add to our knowledge on novel reactions and enzymes. However, the transfer to application needs more attention and, thus, scale-up. Enzyme production and optimization in combination with product isolation also need more attention. Thus, this Topic aims to focus also on this chain, including the identification of novel enzymes from bioprospecting activities, producing enzymes and increasing yields from various host organisms, engineering biocatalysts by means of site-directed mutagenesis or directed evolution, putting enzymes together—even with chemical synthesis—yielding novel chemoenzymatic cascades, product isolation after processing or in situ, and even combinatorial approaches towards new products. All this needs research in the field of biocatalysis and biotransformation to bring us to new frontiers.

This issue will focus on the following areas:

• Circular economy by finding new products, new biodegradable microbial polymers, new processes that can create value-added products from wastes or from other secondary metabolites, and by reducing the cost of the production;
• Sustainable agriculture through microbial products such as biopesticides and biofertilizers with low impact to human health and which potentiate the sustainability;
• Environmental remediation using microbes or their products as effective tools to reduce environmental contaminants;
• Emerging technologies through a combination of multi-omics potentiating and accelerating the discovery of new microbial products;
• Bioprospecting towards new enzymes and cell-factories including their detailed characterization; and
• Engineering enzymes or even cellular systems towards a more applied routine in view of sustainability and to contribute to circular economy.

Prof. Dr. Dirk Tischler
Dr. Diogo Neves Proença
Dr. Paula Maria Vasconcelos Morais
Topic Editors