Editorial: Bioactive Compounds from Microbes

Editorial on the Research Topic Bioactive Compounds from Microbes Microorganisms are ubiquitous and essentially interact with all the other organisms present in the biosphere, sometimes creating a network of signals that constitutes the basis for life on the Earth. Clarifying the nature of these molecular signals, their targets and the pathways underlying their production, constitutes the essential prerequisite for deciphering inter-kingdom communications, adaptive responses and systems biology (Nicholson et al., 2012; O'Mahony et al., 2015; Cani and Knauf, 2016). The insights acquired in the last two decades about human microbiota, and its fundamental role in maintaining a healthy physiological status, have opened the way to understanding the complex reciprocal talk between bacteria and humans In parallel with these aspects, new bioactive molecules from the microbial world that interact with different cellular models continue to be discovered. The times and the technological advances start now to be suitable for intercellular/interorganism communication to be studied at the molecular level. The aim of the present topic issue is to try to describing the mediator molecules of a network of signals which is still largely underexplored and underexploited. As an example, some soil bacteria (such as Serratia spp.) can have antagonistic actions toward worms and the molecule involved, zeamine, is effective against yeasts and other biological systems, as well. Prodigiosin, the well-known pigment produced by the marine bacterium Vibrio ruber, has a broad antimicrobial spectrum and induces autolytic activity in the target cells (i.e., Bacillus subtilis). Lantibiotics are class I bacteriocins produced by Gram-positive bacteria that can be bioengineered to both enhance their effectiveness against a larger number of bacterial strains and to improve their stability during the gastric transit that is by rendering them protease-resistant. These overall data open new possibilities for antibiotic therapy in a period in which the phenomenon of antibiotic resistance is considered as a major threat to public health (World Health Organization, 2014) since it is widespread in pathogenic, commensal, and food bacteria (Laxminarayan et al., 2013). Furthermore, the appearance of multiresistant bacterial strains (the so-called superbugs), often causing death, clearly constitutes a serious problem to be solved. Exploiting the microbial world and its huge potential in finding new antimicrobial drugs is an urgent concern and some chapters of this topic issue deal with these aspects. Other interesting molecules are produced by cytomegalovirus-infected cells: these compounds of viral origin (essentially proteins) can promote virus dissemination, persistence, and pathogenesis by …