Microbial Biotechnology: From Biodiversity and Systematics to Sustainable Bioprocesses

Microorganisms are among the richest reservoirs of genetic and metabolic diversity on Earth, and they underpin innovation across biotechnology, bioengineering, agriculture, and environmental sustainability. Advances in microbial systematics, genomics, and multi-omics are revealing novel taxa and pathways with clear potential for industrial and environmental application. Yet a persistent gap separates the discovery of this diversity from its translation into scalable bioprocesses: many microbial taxa with valuable metabolic capabilities remain uncharacterized, and the link between biodiversity research and industrial bioprocess development is still weak.This Research Topic aims to bridge that gap by connecting microbial diversity, systematics, and functional characterization with the design of sustainable, scalable bioprocesses. We welcome interdisciplinary work that moves from microbial resource discovery through to application: spanning enzyme and metabolite exploration, microbial engineering, fermentation and bioprocess optimization, and bio-based production. Contributions offering microbial solutions for environmental remediation, renewable biomanufacturing, resource recovery, waste valorization, and sustainable agriculture are particularly encouraged, as are studies that advance circular bioeconomy strategies and resource-efficient production. In addition, we particularly welcome data-driven bioprospecting approaches that use machine learning, artificial intelligence, and large-scale genomic, metagenomic, and multi-omics data to predict novel enzymes, biosynthetic gene clusters, and metabolic pathways, thereby accelerating the translation of microbial diversity into biotechnological and industrial applications.By bringing together microbiologists, taxonomists, bioengineers, industrial biotechnologists, and computational biologists/bioinformatician, this collection seeks to accelerate the translation of microbial discoveries into practical technologies that address global challenges in food security, environmental protection, climate resilience, and industrial sustainability.Themes of interest include, but are not limited to:• Microbial systematics, phylogenomics, and functional genomics as a basis for bioprospecting• Enzyme discovery and engineering; microbial natural products and biocatalysis• Industrial microbiology, fermentation technology, and bioprocess optimization• Metabolic engineering, synthetic biology, and microbial cell factories• Bioremediation, waste valorization, and resource recovery• Agricultural and environmental biotechnology, including biofertilizers and biopesticides• Bio-based products and circular bioeconomy approaches• Data-driven bioprospecting: machine learning, AI, and computational prediction of novel enzymes, metabolic pathways, and microbial functions from genomic and multi-omics data Topic editors: Anusha H. Ekanayaka, W. A. Subodini Nuwanthika, Sarfraz Hussain Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/86255/microbial-biotechnology-from-biodiversity-and-systematics-to-sustainable-bioprocesses