Essentials of Marine Biotechnology

Abstract

Coastal countries have traditionally relied on the existing marine resources (e.g., fishing, food, transport, recreation, and tourism) as well as tried to support new economic endeavors (ocean energy, desalination for water supply, and seabed mining). Modern societies and lifestyle resulted in an increased demand for dietary diversity, better health and well-being, new biomedicines, natural cosmeceuticals, environmental conservation, and sustainable energy sources. These societal needs stimulated the interest of researchers on the diverse and underexplored marine environments as promising and sustainable sources of biomolecules and biomass, and they are addressed by the emerging field of marine (blue) biotechnology. Blue biotechnology provides opportunities for a wide range of initiatives of commercial interest for the pharmaceutical, biomedical, cosmetic, nutraceutical, food, feed, agricultural, and related industries. This article synthesizes the essence, opportunities, responsibilities, and challenges encountered in marine biotechnology and outlines the attainment and valorization of directly derived or bio-inspired products from marine organisms. First, the concept of bioeconomy is introduced. Then, the diversity of marine bioresources including an overview of the most prominent marine organisms and their potential for biotechnological uses are described. This is followed by introducing methodologies for exploration of these resources and the main use case scenarios in energy, food and feed, agronomy, bioremediation and climate change, cosmeceuticals, bio-inspired materials, healthcare, and well-being sectors. The key aspects in the fields of legislation and funding are provided, with the emphasis on the importance of communication and stakeholder engagement at all levels of biotechnology development. Finally, vital overarching concepts, such as the quadruple helix and Responsible Research and Innovation principle are highlighted as important to follow within the marine biotechnology field. The authors of this review are collaborating under the European Commission-funded Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action Ocean4Biotech -European transdisciplinary networking platform for marine biotechnology and focus the study on the European state of affairs.

The insulin-degrading enzyme: from molecular evolution and subcellular localization to new roles in microglial physiology

“…Many bioactive and therapeutical compounds highly effective and safe to the human body have been developed from natural compounds. The uppermost focus in natural substance bioactivity has been on antioxidation, anti-inflammation, antitumoral, cytotoxic, antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral effects (Kim, 2019).…”

Gracilibacillus salinarum sp. nov. and Gracilibacillus caseinilyticus sp. nov., halotolerant bacteria isolated from a saltern environment

“…Following tolerance to salinity, DNA G+C content at a range of 35.0–43.0 %, the presence of menaquinone-7 (MK-7) as the major respiratory quinone, meso -diaminopimelic acid ( meso -DAP) as the cell-wall diamino acid, diphosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylglycerol as the major polar lipids and iso-C 15 : 0 , anteiso-C 15 : 0 and anteiso-C 17 : 0 as major fatty acids help in the assignment of species to the genus Gracilibacillus [1, 6, 15–17]. Saline environments have been consistently recorded in scientific literature as an excellent source of microorganisms that have huge biotechnological potential in the areas of agriculture, industry, bio-medicine, bioremediation and biofuels [18–22]. With such a huge and dynamic research background, it is critical to accurately document potentially important isolates in all aspects.…”