Marine Microorganisms as Sustainable Cell Factories: Secondary Metabolites and Their Biotechnological Potential

Marine microorganisms are emerging as promising, sustainable cell factories for the production of a wide range of high-value secondary metabolites, with applications spanning biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, cosmetics, agriculture, environmental remediation, and blue economy initiatives. Growing global demand for renewable bio-based products, combined with increasing environmental and resource-related challenges, has intensified interest in harnessing marine microbial metabolism as a scalable and eco-friendly platform for the discovery and production of high-value bioactive compounds. In particular, pigments, polyphenols, lipids, peptides, polysaccharides, and other specialized metabolites derived from these organisms are increasingly recognized for their ecological, chemical, and biotechnological significance.Recent advances in computational metabolomics, molecular networking, multi-omics integration, advanced statistical prioritization workflows, and systems biotechnology are transforming our ability to decode, predict, and exploit the chemical diversity of marine microorganisms and aquatic environments. The integration of high-resolution analytical platforms with bioinformatics, cheminformatics, and novel databases is enabling unprecedented exploration of marine microbial metabolism and biosynthetic pathways. These approaches are also improving our understanding of ecological interactions and environmentally driven metabolic responses across aquatic systems. In parallel, the characterization of dissolved organic matter (DOM) and extracellular metabolites is expanding our ability to interpret complex biochemical networks beyond microbial biomass. Such approaches provide new insights into ecosystem-level metabolic interactions and uncover previously inaccessible chemical diversity with significant biotechnological potential.Despite these advances, significant challenges remain in translating complex metabolic, ecological, and multi-omics datasets into mechanistic understanding and scalable biotechnological applications. A large proportion of marine microbial chemical diversity remains unexplored, while metabolite annotation, functional interpretation, and the integration of heterogeneous omics and environmental datasets continue to represent major bottlenecks. Additional efforts are therefore needed to bridge fundamental discoveries in marine microbial secondary metabolism with sustainable cultivation strategies, downstream processing, and industrial biotechnology applications.This Research Topic aims to provide an interdisciplinary platform highlighting recent advances in the discovery, characterization, computational exploration, and biotechnological exploitation of marine microbial secondary metabolites and aquatic chemical diversity. We welcome Original Research, Reviews, Mini-Reviews, and Perspectives addressing topics including, but not limited to:• Discovery, characterization, and biotechnological applications of marine microbial-derived bioactive metabolites;• Computational metabolomics, dereplication, and metabolite annotation strategies;• Multi-omics integration, advanced statistical prioritization workflows, and bioinformatics platforms for the investigation of aquatic environments and microalgal metabolism;• Dissolved organic matter (DOM), extracellular metabolites, and environmental metabolomics across marine and freshwater ecosystems;• Biosynthetic pathways, metabolic regulation, and stress-induced metabolite production;• Synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, and strain optimization;• Innovative cultivation systems, photobioreactor optimization, and scale-up strategies; and• Green extraction technologies and downstream bioprocessing workflows.By integrating contributions across diverse disciplines, this collection aims to foster innovation and promote the development of sustainable, marine microbial-based biotechnological solutions for a greener future. Topic editors: Ida Orefice, Valeria Di Dato, Angela Sardo, Alexandros Polyzois Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/81556/marine-microorganisms-as-sustainable-cell-factories-secondary-metabolites-and-their-biotechnological-potential