About this Research Topic

Background

Seawater is a very unique and harsh environment for life, leading all microorganisms to develop adaptations with great potential for biotechnological applications. Among them, marine fungi captured the attention of researcher because of their unique adaptations, which include enzymes with unique features, specific pigments, unique metabolites and sensitive receptor. For example, secondary metabolites are known to be potent because water dilutes any secreted compound, and therefor of special pharmaceutical interest as potential drugs, with antimicrobial or anticancer property. Some marine fungi are able to degrade oil and plastic in marine environments and therefore a great potential for bioremediation. Enzymes from marine fungi have interesting features for industrial applications, including but not limited to the biorefinery system, such as great tolerance and stability to high salinity and high pH, extremely low or high temperature, low water potential and high hydrostatic pressure.

Very little is known about the biology and ecological role of marine fungi and even less about the molecular mechanisms which control their unique physiology. Many of these mechanisms are the basis to develop and/or improve biotech applications for bioremediation, biofuel, and pharmaceutical product.

Biotech applications of marine fungi are just at their embryonal phase, due to the lack of knowledge in their physiology and the mechanism(s) involved in. This knowledge is crucial for genetic engineering-based approaches to perform target and rapid strains improvement with superior capabilities for industrial applications.

This research topic invites manuscripts that focus on the physiology and its molecular mechanisms of marine fungi with biotechnological proposes, such as but not limited to metabolic routes, regulatory systems, production of enzymes/metabolites. Also showcases of any industrial process of marine fungi and/or their products or novel strategy to improve such processes are welcome.

This topic shall examine the use of marine fungi and/or their products as ecologically sustainable options to fight the environmental crisis and help the transition to the circular economy in the next decades. We will accept all types of articles.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Data Report
• Editorial
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Data Report
• Editorial
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: physiology & biotechnology of marine fungi, biorefinery & bioremediation, novel metabolic pathways, synthetic biology in marine fungal chassis

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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