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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Biotechnology and Bioproducts
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1558320
This article is part of the Research Topic Harnessing Marine Biodiversity for Novel Antimicrobial Agents Against Multidrug-Resistant Pathogens View all 7 articles

Marine Actinomycetes: A Hidden Treasure Trove for Antibacterial Discovery

Provisionally accepted
Chengqian Pan Chengqian Pan 1Syed Shams ul Hassan Syed Shams ul Hassan 2*Muhammad Ishaq Muhammad Ishaq 3Shikai Yan Shikai Yan 2*Huizi Jin Huizi Jin 2*
  • 1 School of Pharmacy, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, China
  • 2 School of Pharmacy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
  • 3 Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for Research and Development of Natural Drugs, School of Pharmacy, Guangdong Medical University, Dongguan, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Oceans boast a substantial microbial diversity, which is widely prevalent in seawater, marine sediments, and marine organisms. In contrast to terrestrial resources explored in traditional natural product research, the habitats of marine microorganisms are distinctly unique. Actinomycetes serve as a vital source of secondary metabolites, including antibiotics and other potent natural products like streptomycin and tetracycline. They have played a pivotal role in clinical treatments for significant diseases such as pathogenic bacterial infections. Nevertheless, the extensive use of antibiotics has led to a sharp increase in the variety and number of drug-resistant bacteria, notably multidrug-resistant (MDR) and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) bacteria, in clinical settings, posing a grave threat to human survival. Consequently, there is an immediate need to discover structurally novel antibacterial natural products and develop new antibiotics. This mini review summarizes a total of 45 novel antibacterial natural products derived from marine actinomycetes, published in 2024. These products, including polyketides, alkaloids, macrolactams, and peptides, are highlighted in terms of their structures and biological activities. The objective of this article is to provide valuable insights for the research and development of novel antibiotics.

    Keywords: Marine actinomycetes, Antibacterial activity, Polyketides, Alkaloids, Macrolactams

    Received: 10 Jan 2025; Accepted: 29 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Pan, Hassan, Ishaq, Yan and Jin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Syed Shams ul Hassan, School of Pharmacy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, Shanghai Municipality, China
    Shikai Yan, School of Pharmacy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, Shanghai Municipality, China
    Huizi Jin, School of Pharmacy, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, Shanghai Municipality, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.