Bioprospecting Potential of Marine Microbial Natural Bioactive Compounds

The ocean is considered to be an immense reservoir of biological and microbial diversity on the planet. In marine biospheres, microbial communities are ecologically significant as intermediaries of energy. By decomposing the dead as well as decaying organic matter with the assistance of microbial communities, it plays an indispensable role in the nutrient regeneration cycles of marine ecosystems. Marine environments associated with microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, and bacterial virus have renowned potential to produce novel bioactive natural products and chemically diverse secondary metabolites like antibiotics, antifungal, antiviral, antitumor, anticancer, and also different hydrolyzing enzymes, namely, protease, lipase, amylase, chitinase, etc. Hence, the bioprospecting for these compounds is of greater importance. Numerous effective and efficient applications of marine microbial metabolites contribute to the fields of pharmaceuticals, biotechnological, agricultural, cosmetics industries, and so on. This review attempts to summarize the present status of bioprospecting marine microorganisms and their role in natural product discovery.