Results
Title

Marine Viruses: the Beneficial Side of a Threat.

Authors

Sánchez-Paz, Arturo; Muhlia-Almazan, Adriana; Saborowski, Reinhard; García-Carreño, Fernando; Sablok, Gaurav; Mendoza-Cano, Fernando

Abstract

Marine viruses are ubiquitous, extremely diverse, and outnumber any form of life in the sea. Despite their ecological importance, viruses in marine environments have been largely ignored by the academic community, and only those that have caused substantial economic losses have received more attention. Fortunately, our current understanding on marine viruses has advanced considerably during the last decades. These advances have opened new and exciting research opportunities as several unique structural and genetic characteristics of marine viruses have shown to possess an immense potential for various biotechnological applications. Here, a condensed overview of the possibilities of using the enormous potential offered by marine viruses to develop innovative products in industries as pharmaceuticals, environmental remediation, cosmetics, material sciences, and several others, is presented. The importance of marine viruses to biotechnology should not be underestimated.

Subjects

MARINE microorganisms; VIRUSES; BIOTECHNOLOGY; INDUSTRIAL applications; TECHNOLOGICAL innovations; PHARMACEUTICAL industry; COSMETICS; MATERIAL Sciences Corp.

Publication

Applied Biochemistry & Biotechnology, 2014, Vol 174, Issue 7, p2368

ISSN

0273-2289

Publication type

Academic Journal

DOI

10.1007/s12010-014-1194-6