Cross-Stress Adaptations in Halophilic Microorganisms: From Molecular Mechanisms to Sustainable Biotechnology

Halophilic microorganisms—including bacteria, archaea, yeasts, microalgae, and other salt-adapted microorganisms—have evolved to thrive in hypersaline environments that impose severe osmotic and ionic stress. Beyond their remarkable salt tolerance, these organisms display an extraordinary capacity to withstand a wide range of secondary environmental challenges, including oxidative stress, temperature extremes, desiccation, UV radiation, toxic metals, nutrient limitation, or exposure to organic solvents. Such cross-stress resilience results from highly coordinated physiological, biochemical, and molecular adaptations that contribute to cellular robustness, long-term survival, and ecological success of these microorganisms in fluctuating extreme environments, making them attractive candidates for sustainable biotechnological applications.This Topic aims to showcase recent advances in understanding the molecular mechanisms and its regulation underlying secondary stress adaptations across the diversity of halophilic microorganisms and to explore how these unique traits can be exploited for sustainable biotechnology. Applications of interest include the sustainable production of high-value biomolecules, and environmental or industrial processes that benefit from the exceptional robustness of halophilic microorganisms. Article types of interest include original research articles, reviews, mini-reviews, perspectives, and methods papers presenting innovative experimental or computational approaches relevant to the study and exploitation of halophilic microorganisms, including but not limited to the following themes:• Molecular mechanisms of cross-stress adaptation and its regulation and evolutionary strategies that promote resilience under multiple environmental stresses: regulatory networks, membrane remodelling, protein and enzyme stability, redox homeostasis, DNA repair or other cross-protection mechanisms.• Interdisciplinary approaches to develop robust halophilic microbial platforms for industrial applications: adaptive laboratory evolution, systems biology and integrative multiomics, synthetic biology, modelling, artificial intelligence or computational tools for metabolic engineering.• Innovative methodologies, advances in cultivation techniques, genetic manipulation, computational tools, bioprocess engineering that facilitate the study, engineering, and industrial sustainability exploitation of halophilic microorganisms.• Sustainable production of compatible solutes, especially new ones with novel applications, enzymes, pigments, biopolymers, biosurfactants, bioactive compounds and other high-value biomolecules.• Bioremediation, carbon capture and valorization, circular bioeconomy, agriculture and other environmental or industrial processes that benefit from the robustness of halophilic microorganisms.By bringing together studies spanning fundamental, molecular and environmental microbiology, and biotechnology this Topic seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of how secondary stress adaptations have shaped the resilience of halophilic extremophiles and how these adaptations can inspire the next generation of sustainable biotechnological innovations. Topic editors: Montserrat Argandoña, Julia Esclapez Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/85092/cross-stress-adaptations-in-halophilic-microorganisms-from-molecular-mechanisms-to-sustainable-biotechnology