Marine Cyanobacteria Under Environmental Stressors: Adaptive Benefits, Progress, and Potential for Biotechnology

Cyanobacteria are ubiquitous photoautotrophic prokaryotes that perform oxygenic photosynthesis and make possible the oxygenation of Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. They play an essential role in global carbon and nitrogen biogeochemical cycles, producing organic matter from inorganic molecules. As inhabitants of a wide range of niches, including severe and fluctuating conditions, cyanobacteria are exposed to different kinds of abiotic stressors in their natural environment. To cope with them, cyanobacteria evolved various strategies and adaptations to light, radiation, desiccation, nutrient starvation, salinity, etc. These include changes in regulatory pathways, expression of stress- responsive genes, de novo protein synthesis, DNA repair, secretion of secondary metabolites and exopolysaccharides, microcolonies and biofilm formation, among
others. Even though abiotic stressors are a main concern for global challenges, only a few studies characterizing proteins with the potential to improve resistance and tolerance against them have been reported. The study of cyanobacteria´s responses to adverse environmental conditions contributes to increasing knowledge of signaling, metabolic pathways, and genes and proteins with unique properties. This knowledge could be used for the improvement of biotechnology with potential
benefits and applications in the agronomic, health, and beauty industries.

This Research Topic welcomes studies (including Original Research, Perspectives, Reviews, Mini Reviews, Commentaries and Opinion papers) that investigate the effect of the following environmental conditions in marine cyanobacteria focusing on the survival advantages that have the potential to improve the biotechnology industry:

• Light intensity and quality
• Radiation stress (ultraviolet, gamma) and mechanisms of protection and tolerance in
cyanobacteria
• Nutrient deficiency (N, P, Fe)
• Chemicals (fertilizers, pesticides, and heavy metals)
• Salinity
• pH
• Temperature
• Desiccation and drought

Please note that Frontiers in Microbiology has a similar Research Topic with a focus on Freshwater Cyanobacteria, for your consideration: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/62764/progress-in-microalgae-research-2024-freshwater-microalgae

Keywords: Abiotic Stress, Biotechnological Applications, Microalgae, biotechnology, bio factories

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.