Microbial bioprospecting in marine environments

Abstract

During evolution microorganisms accumulated a remarkable physiological and functional heterogeneity as a result of their adaptation to various selective environmental pressures. Marine microorganisms have been evolving and diversifying for billions of years in contrast microorganisms from terrestrial habitats, which possess a much shorter evolutionary history. In addition, the oceans harbor unique habitats that are mostly unexplored, making them exciting targets for bioprospecting of new microbial capabilities. Over the last years, novel and more complex approaches for the screening of molecules and activities from marine microorganisms with biotechnological potential have been developed and successfully applied. In this chapter, we explore methodological approaches that are currently being used for microbial bioprospecting, with emphasis in the marine environment. These include, among others, high-throughput and other advanced cultivation techniques aiming to recover a larger fraction of culturable microbes, as well as culture-independent, omics and meta-omics approaches for mining the microbial metabolic potential.