Biodiscovery of Novel Bioactivities from the South African Marine Environment

Abstract

There is currently a global health crisis taking place, which is the increasing occurrence of drug-resistant pathogens within clinical microorganisms. Drugresistant pathogens are increasingly becoming more difficult to treat; whereas novel drug discovery has declined, therefore there is an urgency to develop novel drug candidates that are able to combat these infections. The marine environment is an important source of biodiversity resulting from the various environmental niches that have formed due to a multitude of conditions such as, low temperatures, high pressure, various pH as well as salinity. These niches are potentially able to harbour diverse bacterial communities therefore making the marine environment a good source for the bioprospecting of novel microorganisms and antimicrobial compounds.