Microbes and Their Products for Sustainable Human Life

Dear Colleagues,

Microbes are omnipresent and are able to survive and continuously evolve with the changing environment. The majority of microbes are beneficial for humans and nature and a fraction of microbes are considered to be pathogens. Understanding the world of microbes is important to mitigate their dangerous effects and harness their potential for human health, food security, sustainable energy sources, and tackling climate change. Microbes are an integral part of human life and they are used to produce various food products through fermentation. Microbial products such as polyhydroxyalkanoates and exopolysaccharides have great potential in the health sector. Microbes are also used to improve crop yields and productivity. Infectious diseases are a major cause of death around the globe. Almost one third of drugs (antibiotics, cholesterol-lowering, and anticancer medicines) are produced using microbes. A large amount of wastewater and organic waste is generated through industrial and household activities and causes environmental pollution. The use of microbes in waste treatment is an eco-friendly method with the advantage of resource recovery and the production of valuable products such as lipids, hydrogen, polymers, etc. Microbes also have a direct role in the valorization of waste into bioenergy, performing anaerobic digestion, dark fermentation, and photo fermentation. It is important to explore the role of microbes in human health and sustainability. Keeping in view the recent advances in microbes and their product-related research, this Special Issue will include a series of review and research articles that cover the following topics:

• Advances in cultured and uncultured microbes’ isolation and characterization.
• Microbial fermentative products and metabolites as prebiotics/probiotics and food.
• Role of microbes in the biotransformation and synthesis of valuable chemicals.
• Microbial enzyme production and characterization for valuable biochemical production.
• Microbe-derived material (polysaccharides and exopolysaccharides) production and applications.
• Microbe-mediated synthesis of nanomaterials and their application.
• Resource recovery from waste and production of valuables.
• Microbes in advanced biofuel production.

Dr. Shashi Kant Bhatia
Dr. Ranjit Gurav
Topic Editors