Frontiers in MicroBioTechnology and Industrial Microbiology is a Specialty Section of Frontiers in Microbiology.

Microorganisms are indispensable links in recycling important nutrients like carbon, nitrogen, phosphate, etc., in terrestrial and aqueous environments. Without them, it would be impossible, for instance, to use the land for agriculture and have sufficient clean water available. In more contained (industrial) environments, microorganisms are used in the production, modification and preservation of food, or the production of antibiotics or precursors for a variety of chemicals, among others. Not only the microorganisms themselves, but also some of their isolated enzymes, can be advantageous. The genes encoding these proteins are overexpressed in special strains and used in bioconversion and biocatalysis. Research in molecular environmental microbiology has revealed that most of the organisms currently alive have not been isolated yet. One obvious reason is that the microorganisms do not survive presently employed cultivation techniques in the laboratory, and the small fraction that does survive has already been exploited to our advantage for numerous biotechnology processes. At this point in time we are able to sequence genomes from DNA extracted from a large variety of environmental resources. Lately, even a complete genome was synthesized and assembled into a functional genome. Therefore, one might conclude that the isolation and characterization of new microorganisms has low priority, or is not even necessary anymore. We could not disagree more! Even though the identification of known pathways in new DNA sequences is possible, the identification of new enzymes and pathways from raw sequence data is still impossible. Therefore, to exploit so far uncultured microorganisms, our focus should also include new isolation, screening and detection methods. We firmly believe that this will lead to new biotechnological processes, and hence to new products. These new biotechnological processes that are more environmentally friendly and sustainable, might replace existing chemical processes. A promising approach with high potential for this particular research area is the combination of nano- and microtechnology and microbiology. For instance, microfluidics will enhance both the manipulation of small particles (e.g., cells) and the dosed liquid delivery to the individual compartments of, e.g., high throughput arrays. However, we should not forget microorganisms currently known and used in biotechnological processes. Breakthroughs in the areas of genomics, proteomics and metabolomics are very valuable when studying the physiology of microorganisms to understand and optimize biotechnological processes.

Frontiers in MicroBiotechnology and Industrial Microbiology is interested in publishing contributions to the development of new biotechnological processes and their understanding and optimization. Among others, manuscripts dealing with the following topics are considered for publication:

- High throughput screening (e.g., microorganisms, enzymes)
- New biotechnological processes
- Physiology of strains in biotechnological processes
- Industrial strain improvement
- Biosensor development
- New isolation and cultivation methods


Frontiers in MicroBioTechnology and Industrial Microbiology welcomes the following tier 1 article types: Book Review, Editorial, General Commentary, Hypothesis & Theory, Methods, Mini Review, Opinion, Original Research, Perspective, Review and Specialty Grand Challenge.

All articles must be submitted directly to Frontiers in MicroBioTechnology and Industrial Microbiology, where they are processed by the associate and review editors of the Specialty Section.

All articles published in Frontiers in MicroBioTechnology and Industrial Microbiology will be subjected to the Frontiers Evaluation System after online publication. Authors of the original research articles with the highest impact, as judged by many expert readers, will be invited by the Field Chief Editor of Frontiers in Microbiology to write a prestigious Frontiers Focused Review - a tier 2 article. This is referred to as "democratic tiering". The selection is based on the reader impact over a 4-month period from the date of publication. The selected high impact articles are re-written in a review style centered on the original discovery, and aim to address the wider audience across all of Microbiology.