Evaluation of the biotechnological potential of bacterioplankton from Niterói coast, RJ

Marine Bacterial Secondary Metabolites: A Treasure House for Structurally Unique and Effective Antimicrobial Compounds

The prevalence of antimicrobial resistance reduces the effectiveness of antimicrobial drugs in preventing and treating infectious diseases caused by pathogenic organisms, such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Because of the burgeoning growth of microbes with antimicrobial-resistant traits, there is a dire need to identify and develop novel and effective antimicrobial agents to treat infections from antimicrobial-resistant strains. The marine environment is rich in ecological biodiversity and can be regarded as an untapped resource for prospecting novel bioactive compounds. Therefore, exploring the marine environment for antimicrobial agents plays a significant role in drug development and biomedical research. Several earlier scientific investigations have proven that bacterial diversity in the marine environment represents an emerging source of structurally unique and novel antimicrobial agents. There are several reports on marine bacterial secondary metabolites, and many are pharmacologically significant and have enormous promise for developing effective antimicrobial drugs to combat microbial infections in drug-resistant pathogens. In this review, we attempt to summarize published articles from the last twenty-five years (1996–2020) on antimicrobial secondary metabolites from marine bacteria evolved in marine environments, such as marine sediment, water, fauna, and flora.

Marine bacteria as source of antimicrobial compounds

The marine environment encompasses a huge biological diversity and can be considered as an underexplored location for prospecting bioactive molecules. In this review, the current state of art about antimicrobial molecules from marine bacteria has been summarized considering the main phylum and sources evolved in a marine environment. Considering the last two decades, we have found as most studied group of bacteria producers of substances with antimicrobial activity is the Firmicutes phylum, in particular strains of the Bacillus genus. The reason for that can be attributed to the difficult cultivation of typical Actinobacteria from a marine sediment, whose members are the major producers of antimicrobial substances in land environments. However, a reversed trend has been observed in recent years with an increasing number of reports settling on Actinobacteria. Great diversity of chemical structures have been identified, such as fijimicyns and lynamicyns from Actinomycetes and macrolactins produced by Bacillus.