Application of Extremophiles in Biological Degradation and Conversion

Dear Colleagues,

Life in extreme environments is very challenging, and organisms’ adaptation to such harsh conditions ultimately produces valuable enzymes and metabolites vital for industrial applications. Extremophiles, especially thermophiles, are known to survive in diverse extreme conditions (such as high temperatures, high salinity, acidic and alkaline pH values, and high radiation). They harbor abundant microbial enzymes capable of tolerating extreme conditions, which have various industrial implications. As novel technologies have advanced, more insight into extremophilic bacteria has been provided based on the development of metagenomic analyses, yet more research on extremophiles’ bioconversion still needs to be investigated. Further improvement and supplementation of the research in this field will contribute to the environmentally friendly removal of organic pollutants to achieve better results.

This Research Topic aims to collect and publish high-quality research, reviews, and short communications in the relevant fields. Papers are expected to represent significant advances, bring novel insight to the field, and show application potential in industries. Although significant achievements have been made by exploiting extremophiles to remove organic compounds and uncover the underlying mechanisms, many problems still need to be solved in advancing related technology and research. In particular, interdisciplinary research is encouraged to stimulate new research directions.

This Research Topic focuses on extremophiles utilized for biodegradation, bioremediation, and resource utilization of organic compounds, with views in an in-depth understanding of functional mechanisms. This Research Topic welcomes contributions in the form of original research, review articles, short communications, and technical notes on the potential themes, including, but not limited to, the following:

Discovery and functional analysis of novel extremophiles with biodegradation/resource utilization capacity.

Deciphering unclear genetic and metabolic pathways of extremophiles for degradation of petroleum and derived organic compounds.

Metabolic products of extremophiles (biosurfactants, biopolymers, biogases, biomass, bioacids, biosolvents, etc.).

Possibilities and challenges of exploiting extremophiles in industrial applications.

Sincerely

Prof. Dr. Wei Wang
Dr. Xuehua Wan
Guest Editors

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• extremophiles
• bioconversion
• bioremediation
• biodegradation
• microbial metabolism