Microalgae and cyanobacteria (blue‐green algae) are used as food by humans. They have gained a lot of attention in recent years because of their potential applications in biotechnology. Microalgae and cyanobacteria are good sources of many valuable compounds, including important biologically active compounds with antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, and anticancer activities. Under optimal growth condition and stress factors, algal biomass produce varieties of potential bioactive compounds. In the current review, bioactive compounds production and their remarkable applications such as pharmaceutical and nutraceutical applications along with processes involved in identification and characterization of the novel bioactive compounds are discussed. Comprehensive knowledge about the exploration, extraction, screening, and trading of bioactive products from microalgae and cyanobacteria and their pharmaceutical and other applications will open up new avenues for drug discovery and bioprospecting.

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Marine sponges are sources of various bioactive metabolites, including several anticancer drugs, produced mainly by sponge-associated microbes. Palk Bay, on the south-east coast of India, is an understudied, highly disturbed reef environment exposed to various anthropogenic and climatic stresses. In recent years, Palk Bay suffered from pollution due to the dumping of untreated domestic sewage, effluents from coastal aquaculture, tourism, salt pans, cultivation of exotic seaweeds, and geogenic heavy-metal pollution, especially arsenic, mercury, cadmium, and lead. Low microbial-abundant sponge species, such as Gelliodes pumila and Cliona lobata , were found to be ubiquitously present in this reef environment. Triplicate samples of each of these sponge species were subjected to Illumina MiSeq sequencing using V3–V4 region-specific primers. In both C. lobata and G. pumila, there was an overwhelming dominance (98 and 99%) of phylum Candidatus Saccharibacteria and Proteobacteria , respectively . The overall number of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) was 68 (40 and 13 OTUs unique to G. pumila and C. lobata , respectively; 15 shared OTUs). Alphaproteobacteria was the most abundant class in both the sponge species. Unclassified species of phylum Candidatus Saccharibacteria from C. lobata and Chelotivorans composti from G. pumila were the most abundant bacterial species. The predominance of Alphaproteobacteria also revealed the occurrence of various xenobiotic-degrading, surfactant-producing bacterial genera in both the sponge species, indirectly indicating the possible polluted reef status of Palk Bay. Studies on sponge microbiomes at various understudied geographical locations might be helpful in predicting the status of reef environments.

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Background: Enterococcus faecium is an emerging multidrug resistant opportunistic pathogen responsible for causing most of the nosocomial infections. Adhesins are the cell wall anchoring proteins implicated in the pathogenesis of enterococcal infections. The present investigation is carried out to spot the occurrence of bacterial immunoglobulin-like (Ig) domain-1 or Big-1 adhesins among 204 HPs from E. faecium strain 13-022. Methods: The pathogen E. faecium chromosomal strain 13-022 was searched in the NCBI database which comprised of 2746 proteins. To filter HPs, the keyword 'hypothetical proteins' with sequence length >100 residues was queried. The filtered 204 HPs were subjected to functional annotation, physico-chemical properties, virulence factors, cellular location, secondary structure prediction and protein-protein interactions (PPIs). Finally, 3D models were obtained for essential non-homologous adhesins with potential drug binding pockets. Results: Primarily functional classification of 204 HPs which are assigned to 27 different functional activities with good thermal stability (50%), hydropathicity and virulence factors (79%). Majority of the HPs are predicted to reside in the cytoplasm and cell membrane. 78 HPs are predicted with high confidence. Among them, 14 are having βαβ motifs including two adhesins and the PPI network has 4 gene set of Mga helix-turn-helix and 2 gene set of putative adhesion and 77 proteins are essential hypothetical proteins (EHPs). Of 77 EHPs, 65 are pathogen-specific, indeed considered as probable drug targets. In these 65 essential pathogen specific proteins, 23 targets are found to be biological targets and rest are novel targets. Among 23 targets, three are adhesins those have therapeutic applications. Conclusion: The present study predicted the occurrence of virulent drug targeted Big-1 specifically bacterial non-pilus fimbriae immunoglobulin-like (Ig) domain-1among 204 HPs. Its structure, function and significance were emphasized to develop novel drugs for better treatment.

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